Homecoming pictures

Monkey came back about a month and a half ago, and I finally got a hold of the photos yesterday. He's on a Boomer sub, so that means... A. We're lucky that we get to meet the boat.  B. Camera's are not allowed on lower base, where we meet the boat. 

I won first kiss in a fundraising raffle while he was gone. So that meant that he got off the boat first! What I didn't know is that they had an official photographer (uniformed guy taking pictures) this time to take pictures of first kiss and first hug. They've never done that before (that I've noticed). If I had known that there was going to be a photographer, I would have worn something cuter and done my hair more. But it was REALLY cold and I opted for warm since we would be waiting down there for a long time. I figured he wasn't going to care too much, he hadn't seen me in months. I mean, I did my hair and makeup and stuff, but hard to wear a cute outfit when you have to dress for less than 50 degree weather. 

Anyway, the guy didn't get a very good angle so most of the pics aren't that fantastic, but it's still cool that I have some, considering the limitations due to the kind of boat he's on. Here are the best ones of the bunch.

Happy Birthday Love

Also, today is this man's birthday! 

Happy birthday to my bestest friend and most wonderful husband!

Go green!

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned that I started (yet another) hobby. I mean, it's not completely different it's just at a new location in addition to all the other stuff. I started going to another martial arts place doing their "fusion" program, which is a mix of all the things I've already been training, or have trained in the past at my first gym, plus one other discipline. (Muay Thai, Jiujitsu/groundwork, lameco escrima, plus taekwondo which is new for me)

I'm still going to both places, I get something different out of each of them. The new place has a belt system for their program which is more motivating than I thought it would be. Since I was new I started at white belt even though I knew almost all of the curriculum from my previous training. But, I was content to be a white belt as long as they let me train some things with the higher belts so that I didn't get bored. So that's what I've been doing so far.

Belt testing was coming up and they were talking about skipping me up past my next belt (skipping orange and going straight to gold) so I could train a little higher in general, but I wasn't able to learn the forms that I needed to test for that belt (completely out of my own lack of trying harder) so I was fine just moving up one belt under the premise that I would still be working at my level regardless of my belt level. 

So, Saturday we did the belt test. At the end we were all sitting in our lines, eyes closed, "calming our breathing... reflecting... etc", while they placed our new belts in front of us. I opened my eyes to find a green belt sitting in front of me! That's three belts higher! I guess they decided I was ready to move up anyway.  There is a little bit of video I'm working on editing that Monkey took on his cell phone. You can see the instructor make a "sneaky-excited" face to someone off camera as he placed the belt in front of me. Then you can see me not-so-slyly checking the belt wall to confirm that I really did get skipped up that far. I almost didn't believe it for a second. I think my brain thought "oh I guess there is another color before orange". Nope! :D  

You can see the orange belt behind and to the left that normally comes after the white belt. I'm trying my hardest not to have a foolish/excited grin on my face as I'm assuming there were quite a few people wondering why this white belt who's only been there for two and a half months part time, managed to jump up to green belt.

So, needless to say, I was very proud, and excited, and really antsy to get back to class with my shiny new green belt! ...but I'm sick so I'm not supposed to go spread my germs. If I can quit coughing, I think I'm going to go try and fake it tonight. I really want to be there on the first day of class this week. 

Beach Trip Photos and Video

I made a post about our beach trip last night, but the internet was too slow to add photos or this video. So here they are for you now.

Haystack rock: we were there!

Obligatory beach self portrait.

Sportin' the hipster look after getting his jeans caught in the chain!

 

Found a sand dollar. But, we put it back. Also, lovin the hair. It was a bit windy.

"Yea, i get to drag this thing a half mile up the beach against the wind back to the bike shop cause the chain fell off! Super fun!"

Post fun Pig n pancake. Lovin' the wind-styled hair do.

Lifes a beach...

Oh my, where to start. We've had a big big day. Our goal today was to get up and find the place that rents those three wheeled bikes you ride on the beach. So, in the interest of fitting fitness into our fun, we walked two miles into Cannon Beach to find that both of the bike shops are closed... for this week... of all the luck. So, we walked around and shopped a little. We purchased a frisbee to play with on the beach, though we didn't end up using it. Right now the wind is howling and the bad weather is rolling in. 

But wait, lets back up. After shopping we walked the two miles back, had a snack and then got in the car and drove 10 miles to sea side where we knew there was another bike shop. It was closed. So we went up the street to another place. It wasn't technically open, but they said their other shop was open. But, they didn't have the bikes we wanted. So, they ended up being super nice and letting us rent the bikes from there. They didn't have their registers open so they took us the in the electric Sponge Bob Mobile to the bank to get cash. 

We had to walk to the bikes a few blocks to the beach, then down over the dry sand into the wet sand. It actually took me a couple tries to get going. I didn't realize how much balance it would take to make a three wheeled bike to straight. :) Once we finally got going, we had a blast! The wind was blowing really hard though, and it actually made it really hard to pedal. We rode against the wind all the way up the beach as far as we could go, then coasted back down, literally blown by the wind, all the way back to the other side. We over shot the access point and had to pedal back up against the wind again.

Right at that point... my chain fell off! We had to pick up and walk all the way back up the beach and back to the bike store. By then we were so pooped we decided to just be done and find some food. 

We went to Pig 'n a Pancake. Not the classiest restaurant, and definitely getting dated, but "when in Rome..." (It's a staple of Sea Side, OR) I have to say though, the pancakes were pretty awesome. I had way too many. 

Then we walked around a bit after food. Every time I go to Seaside I remember why I don't like seaside. It's all candy shops and junky gift shops. I much prefer shopping in Cannon Beach. In fact I think we might go back into town on our way home tomorrow. 

Well that's it for now. Time to go dump the sand out of my shoes and take a really long hot shower, or just hang out in the jacuzzi in our room. Ahhh....

P.S. I have some photos and video but the internet is soooooo slow here, so it will have to wait until I can get home. 

 

To Blog or to Bore?

*This is a Monkey post*

Its been a while since I have blogged. The cat is sitting on my lap right now being some sort of an adorable nuisance. I'm recovering from an awesome Strength and Sweat class from The Source last night and my trusty computer is recovering from an argument between Windows & Ubuntu after a long night of Skyrim. Excellent game. As usual I am stealing everything from everyone - its an Elder Scrolls tradition for me since Daggerfall.

Anyhoozle, I know few of you will know what all that meant. We are just about to the home stretch right now - One year, eight months to go. Its a little scary. So much to do, so little time now. But its exciting too. I have one thing left to qualify - Quartermaster and I'm almost done. It seems like an easy thing but its SOOO much reading, and the boring sort at that! Either way - almost there. Then its off to college in my free time. Decided I'm shooting for Physician's Assistant - that's going to take a while but I think it will be the best fit.

Sidebar: I have trained this cat too well. I like it when she nudges me so I taught her to do it upon the command "Give papa kitty nudges". Now she seems to want to do it on her own, a lot.

The house I'm renting a room from now is great. Ducky will get to see it next week for the first time even though I have been there for almost a month now. We are headed up there next week to me from the guest room to my permanent room. Its a great area which I'm glad for because I don't think I will have to worry about her being there alone. The owners are a couple of the nicest people I have met.

In other news, She got me a snowboard for Christmas! Which is awesome! Now I need to get all the remaining gear and next winter hopefully we can hit up Mt. Hood. My server was an awesome success this last underway. Filled 10TB of hard drive space - the crew was pretty happy with it.

Anyways signing off - thanks for reading. Rather dull I know :-)

I love March!

March!  It's March!  I love March!!!

Why?

• Birthdays: Both of our Birthdays are in March. And, I think his Mom's is as well.

• Spring! It's not until the end part of the month, but spring happens! Regardless of if it looks like it. It's no longer "winter" and I'll take it!

• St. Patrick's day. Now, I don't drink really at all. But, for some reason I have always liked St. Patrick's day. Most likely because I like any reason to dress up in a fashion. And glitter goes perfectly with this occasion. I don't even know what it's supposed to be about. Snakes? I don't care... glitter! Gosh, am I a girl or what? 

• It's also (when it's over) a third of the way through the year. A good milestone of you're counting down time as we are. 

• Dresses! All the cute spring dresses come out. I can't wear them for a while until it warms up, but I have no problem stocking up my closet for those 5 really sunny days we'll get in our PNW summer!


This is pretty similar to the post I made last March (or maybe the one before that). But, i get excited every year. What can I say!?

How 'bout you? Do you like March? Or, do you have a different favorite month?