Day out at the beach

Seattle Day Out

Lily's Birthday Party

Memorial Day Weekend

My Memorial Day weekend began like most - I cursed my alarm clock as I awoke at 6am to get ready for work. Work was interesting, because it was Memorial Day and we had maybe quarter staffing for the holiday. I ended up with too much work, missed my ferry and had to take the next one, which made me miss my ride, but it all worked out, cause I just walked and met my ride at our destination.

Destination: Dancing Brush (or Paint, or Paintbrush, whatever it's called now) on Bainbridge Island. I decided on making a birthday giftie - a painted Green Man (Froud) on a large serving platter - and it took three hours to paint. Then, I realized I might have just enough time to do a mug I brought with me, and painted mod style poppies on it (Thanks to M. for the design inspiration!).

After that, I got food at Central Market (yum!) with M., and we watched three episodes of Flight of the Conchords, which was totally sweet. I love those guys - so hilarious. I know they hate being called British/English, but their humor vibe is totally Monty Python with music.

My evening ended with a trip to McCloud's with my friend J. to sing some karaoke. I decided to really go for it, and sing "Uninvited" by Alanis Morissette, a song I hadn't ever done before, and totally nailed it, so that's always a fun adrenaline rush.

Finally back to my apartment at 1am to go to sleep and be rested for my 12 hour day at work (today).

All in all, I'd say an excellent holiday. :)

Coming home tomorrow!

I have had a simply wonderful time here in Austria. I hung out with friends, took lots of pictures with my new camera, and went shopping, ate good food, lazed about in the backyard.... essentially everything that I have to work to make time for at home.

Here are my favorite pictures from my trip: Schloss Belvedere, Ruine Aggstein, Stift Melk, St. Stephen's Cathedral interior, and part of the fountain at the Parlament.

Austria

I am currently enjoying a short (9 days) vacation in Austria, which you can see documented in great detail with my new camera on my flickr page. :D

It was a spur of the moment decision in January, and now I'm so thankful I decided to go. It was a great break from my schedule - constant working, essentially - and my schedule when I get back - constant working.

For now, I'm going to fully enjoy the remainder of my vacation, and I hope you all are doing well! Here is my favorite picture I've taken on this trip thus far:

Death Cab for Cutie

yes, I know they're bad pictures. That's what you get when you buy a cameraphone for $50, with $30 off and a $50 rebate.

goings on....

It's been a busy last few weeks, and mainly because I'm working. A lot. But in the times I have not been working, I have been doing fun and amazing things! ha.... or not. I did go see Cabaret at the 5th Avenue Theatre yesterday though, and it was fantastic. I really, really loved it. And now I keep singing "Cabaret" and "Maybe This Time" in my head. I also went to the Spaghetti Factory afterwards with this guy:


and had some actually pretty tasty house wine (Chianti). All in all, an excellent "weekend" (one day off, as usual), and now I feel much more ready to face my upcoming six day week. :)

Sentosa

Today, we went to Sentosa, being that it is National Day here in Singapore (yay 42 years of independence from Malaysia! And yay to Malaysia for 50 years independence from Britain! And yay to Britain for... wait, oh yeah - bad Britain!), and their father had the day off. It is expensive to go to a theme park! It's a reclaimed island that is part of Singapore, and it's basically a giant resort/theme park with lots of stuff to do, nice beaches, and expensive places to give yourself skin cancer.

Highlights:
1) Luge and Skyway - this luge is a plastic sled on wheels ridden down a concrete path. VERY fun. I love driving fast (*sniffle* my poor old Thunderbird will never again allow me to pass nearly everything on the road) and it's even more fun when your plastic luge feels like it's about ready to fall apart under you. Great adrenaline rush! Speaking of adrenaline rushes, there have been a number of shows recently on Discovery about skydiving accidents. I still want to go skydiving, I don't care how much they try to scare me.

2) Hands-on culture - I know it's not cool, they're wild animals, blah blah blah - but the boys LOVED being able to hold the giant constrictor snakes. They also, in addition to everyone else, loved the 'touch a fish' display at the aquarium, where you could hold a starfish, pet a small shark, pufflefish, or an eagle ray. Seriously - they had a blast.

3) Dolphin show - dolphins are just awesome anyway, and these three pink dolphins were super well trained and did lots of fun stuff. Next week, we're going back to Sentosa, and the boys are going to go swimming with the dolphins. I can't actually swim, so I'll just watch. Anyway, these dolphins did amazing jumps and tricks with balls, the whole nine yards. Lots of fun. I especially loved how they danced to the beat - so cute!

4) Ben & Jerry's - I swear, every time I go to Ben & Jerry's, I find another flavor of ice cream that I love. Today it was Chunky Monky, but I love Phish Food and Strawberry Cheesecake, and Double Chocolate Fudge.... Bad calories! Bad! At least I got the small... and I like their business model.

Not so much of a highlight - the Merlion was a total rip-off (mer as in, coming from the sea, lion as in a lion - mix together and you have the head of a lion and the body of a fish - kinda weird looking, but apparently the Singaporeans like it). The show in the overly air-conditioned theater was stupid, the lookout points were tiny, and there was nothing to do in them. WAY cooler from the outside than from the inside. For anyone else who ever happens to make it to Singapore and go to Sentosa, DON'T go inside the Merlion. Save your money, go to one of the shows.

When we go back next week, we're going to get the unlimited luge rides for an hour, do some paddleboat stuff on one of the tiny islands there, and go to a 4D cinematic experience - regular screen with the 3D glasses - you may ask - 4D? huh? 4D refers to someone's bright idea to add smells and other effects, such as water in the face at an appropriate moment, and call it '4D' to attract more visitors and make more money. It's working. Emeril's 'smell-o-vision' has come to life!