WIDTW: Exeriencing Wine

*Since you all know that I am about one week behind on WIDTW posts, this was actually what I did two weekends ago.*

My brother came across a great package deal for a wine tasting over at OENO Wine Making in Kailua and asked if my hubby and I would be interested in going.  What?!?  A guilt-free excuse to drink various types of wine and gorge myself on cheese and crackers.  How could I say no?  So of course we went.

 This is what the shop looks like, minus my husband's shadow...lol.

OENO is a specialty shop that specializes in the making of wine.  So all the wines that they sample are ones that you can make yourself right in their very shop.  Pretty cool, huh?

Greg and his wife, the owners of OENO, bring in grape juices from vineyards all over the world to make whatever kind of wine that you desire!  You choose the type of wine.  Either they or you, with their help of course, mix your chosen grape juice with yeast to kick off the fermentation process.  Then you wait about 4-6 weeks for your juice to turn into delicious wine.  Once your wine is ready to be bottled, they call you up and you throw a rockin' bottling party in their store.  Talk about a blast in a glass!

Greg talked us through our tasting, introducing each wine and teaching us the proper way to swirl and sniff the wine to pick out its bouquet.  He also included a wine evaluation chart and aroma wheel to help us take notes on the wines that we enjoyed and to decipher bouquets and flavor palates.  Very interesting and informative!

If you like wine, I would suggest that you do a tasting at OENO.  I'm not usually a huge fan of make your own wine places.  Personally, I think that their wines are too fruity and sweet.  But the wines at OENO were fantastic!  They taste just like wine straight from the vineyard!  I was blown away!  So other make your own wine places, you better step up your game!

Here's some pictures of our tasting experience...

La'akea smelling the wine.

My brother Zac seriously contemplating the flavor palate...lol.

Really all he wanted to do was eat cheese.  Can you tell that we're related?

Speaking of cheese...  I heart brie!  It is delicious and will forever be one of my favorites.

At wine tastings they pour a 2oz glass.  We ended up tasting 9 wines total, which comes out to about 3 normal sized glasses.  Let's just say we were feeling pretty nice by the end of the tasting.

Ah, that suave brother of mine.

Melanie, his girlfriend, enjoying the wine.

Here's one of them together.  So cute!

Love...

Here's the group shot.  We had to get at least one.  Thanks Greg for taking this one for us!

In the spirit of fun weekend activities, my husband and I decided to make a barrel of California Cabernet.  Greg is currently waiting for the shipment of grape juice for this particular wine, so once it comes in we'll get to mix it and learn the whole wine making process.  I am so excited!  We get to make our own wine bottle labels and everything!

I'll be sure to keep you all posted on my wine making experience.  Also, if you'd like to purchase a bottle of our handmade Cabernet, just let me know!  Since we're friends, I'll give you the 'super friend discount' of $12 a bottle, which is what it cost me.  The barrel should make 28-31 bottles of wine.  We already have a few bottles spoken for, so if you're interested let me know as soon as possible. 

Excited, excited, excited!

WIDTW: From the beach to the bowling alley

As a result of my 2011 goal to post at least three times a week, I have taken it upon myself and my husband to do at least one fun thing each weekend that will inspire me to blog.

Oh man.  I am so behind on 'what I did this weekend' (WIDTW) posts.  I have two weekends worth of stuff to tell you about!  I know, I know...naughty, naughty.  Punishing looks acknowledged.  Don't worry I'll post it all, I promise.

So last, last Saturday I got my husband to go to the beach with me.  He hates the beach.  He likes the idea of the beach, but has a major aversion to sand and sun.  He's a computer geek.  He spends all of his days in a windowless building near a dimly lit screen, what did you expect?  (Lol...that sounds horrible.  He really likes his job, I swear.  Correction, technically his office cubie is near a window, but he doesn't spend a lot of time at his desk.)

I think I may have had a hand in his aversion to sand.  Apparently making little piles of sand on someone's belly while they suntan is not something normal people find amusing.  Sorry darling, I was just trying to construct a small scale version of the Great Wall of China...lol...just kidding.  (Contrary to popular belief, no human bones were used in the mortar of Great Wall of China.  It is a myth.  So if you don't know, now ya know!)

Here we are at Lanikai Beach.  It took forever to find parking.  I remember when almost no one would come to this beach about 4 years ago, but now it's tourist city!  Please sand at Kailua Beach come back soon so I can once again enjoy a mostly deserted beach.

Me enjoying some rays.  I barely ever post pictures of myself, so my husband made sure to get one of me by myself.  I think he's tired of seeing his face plastered on every post...lol.

After the beach we went home to freshen up.  (No one really says that any more, "freshen up".  When did that go out of style?  I'm bringing it back!)  Then we headed on over to the Kaneohe Marine Base bowling alley for some fun with some of my previous coworkers from my days at HPU.  It's always a fun time with the HPU peeps outside of HPU...lol.  Isn't that true for all workplaces?  The fun really begins after work is out.

 K-bay Lanes.  It was beautiful.  All the balls were nicely arranged.  The lanes were clean and new.  Their snack bar looks like a real restaurant and served real food, not just a mishmash of Costco items.  Amazing!

We arrived a little late, so we weren't able to play in the first round of bowling.  Which gave me time to trash talk to my friend Michael....hehe.  He is so competitive!  So I have fun riling him up.  Is my bowling game seriously good?  No!  I'm a horrible bowler, but he didn't know that...lol. 

We jumped in on the next round.  While waiting for our turns, my husband went to grab some snacks and beers.  (Yes, I said beers!  They let you drink and bowl at the same time.  It was awesome!  At Pali Lanes in Kailua, you can't even drink a soda and bowl, but here you can have beer!  I was shocked, so I had to have at least one.)  He was taking a long time to come back with the snacks and it was his turn, so I decided that I would bowl for him.  I knew he wouldn't mind.  You know what happened?  I bowled a strike.  A freaking strike!  Did I bowl one or any during my turn?  No.  I wasted my best frame on him.  That's true love...or a freak accident...either way.

Michael and I after he kicked my butt.  Just think Mike, you wouldn't have played so well if you didn't think that I could beat you....though with that strike, I would have had you.

La'akea after he realized that I bowled a strike for him while he was gone.  Yeah, smile it up buddy...

Thanks Eve for coordinating the bowling party and for inviting me and my hubby even though I don't work there any more!  We had a ton of fun.  You totally beat the pants off of all of us by the way.  Must have been something in the beer...hehe.  Looking forward to a rematch next semester!

Nah, nah, nah, nah, n-n-n-n-n-n-nah!

I'm sure you've all had one of those days where someone just pushes your buttons or rubs you the wrong way.  It's like when you finally get a moment to rest.  You crack open your book to bask in the quiet time.  Then some loud noise happens and your baby wakes up grumpily from his nap.  Or your cell phone rings and it's work calling to see if you can come in to fix an unexpected problem.

Don't you ever want to do it back?  You know, be super obnoxiously annoying to the person who did it to you?  No, of course not.  Me neither...lol.

Well if I ever did, I hope that it would go something like this...


I saw this on Sesame Street the other day and could not stop laughing.  So whenever you feel a little frustrated at the world, just think of the N Song. 

Hope this helped to brighten your Tuesday!  If not, no worries, there's only 3 more days until Friday.

LAN parties aka parties for nerds

I'm sure that none of you have ever attended a LAN party before.  If you have, welcome to the elite few...lol.

What is a LAN party, you ask?  

The official definition according to Wikipedia: "A LAN party is a temporary, sometimes spontaneous, gathering of people with computers, between which they establish a local area network (LAN), primarily for the purpose of playing multiplayer computer games. The size of these networks may vary from the very small (two people) to very large installations. Small parties can form spontaneously, but large ones usually require a fair amount of planning and preparation. As of 2010, the world record for the size of a LAN party is 12,754 connected systems, set at DreamHack, in Jönköping, Sweden." 

Whoa, that is a lot of computers...

The unofficial definition according to me: A LAN party is a gathering of dorky boys, including my husband, who stay up all night and most of the next morning, playing games all while consuming an ungodly amount of pizza, junk food, soda, and Red Bull.


I am the lucky wife who, in my short lifetime, has attended about 5 of these riveting parties.


I am sure that LAN parties are funner than a barrel full of monkeys for the people playing the games, but since I was never a computer game fan I spent most of those nights reading a book, watching a movie, or sleeping.  Occasionally I'd run around the room and randomly bang on people's keyboards who were winning to even the playing field for those who needed the help.  Who's going to stop a girl?  Plus, I was usually the only girl, so it was considered cute for the first two times and utterly annoying the rest of the time...lol.


A few Fridays ago we were invited to a friend's house for a LAN party.  Although my husband is not the computer gamer that he once was, we decided to go for old times' sake. 

Here's Chris, the host of the LAN party.  Pui and Kelly are in the background.

Here's my husband, Chris (a different Chris), and Joel at the start of the first round of Star Craft II.

I wasn't the only girl!  Hooray!

Computer hands.  Yup, this is as exciting as it gets...lol.  

At this particular party, though, there was some added excitement when a giant cockaroach decided to join in on the fun.  I screamed and my husband ran to get a shoe to smash it with.  While he was searching for a murder weapon, the cockaroach proceeded to attack Chris, who leap out of his chair yelling "Ugh it touched my foot!  Did you see it?!?  It totally touched my foot.  Gross!"  (I found this to be hilarious and laughed entirely too much.  Sorry Chris, but you jumping around yelling about the cockaroach was the funniest thing that I have seen in a long time.  I'll try not to laugh so hard the next time, but I am still kind of chuckling about it right now.)  Consequently, everyone else knew he was away from his computer and attacked his character causing him to lose the game.  The cockaroach was also attacked via my husband with a slipper and died as well.

Star Craft II up close.  Exciting isn't it?  Lol...

Though I still can't say that I'm even remotely interested in playing computer games, I did have fun hanging out with everyone.  We've all been friend's since high school and, with all our busy lives, barely get to see each other.  So if we have to use a LAN party as an excuse to get together, then you better believe that we'll be there.  Thanks for a fun time!  

Maybe we could do something a little more girl friendly next time?


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The Twilight Hype

My husband and I started watching Twilight: New Moon last night.  We got through about half of it when he suddenly proclaimed, "Ugh, why are we staying up to watch this agonizingly slow movie?  There's no plot."  So we turned it off and decided to watch the rest another day.  (I mean we can't not finish the movie!  I'm one of those people that, once the movie is started, I can't stand to not see the end.  It will drive me crazy.  Even if the film is horrible, I still have to get to the end.  I just can't help myself.) 

Now I'm not a Twilight Saga fan.  Not even close.  Maybe if I read the books I would feel a kinship to the characters, but as far as the movies go...I'm not really sure what the big deal is.  Team Edward: He looks like a dead guy and has the personality of a dead fish to match.  Team Jacob: Much cuter, mostly because he doesn't look like a dead guy, but still lacking in the personality department.  Oh and that Bella!  Talk about the worst decision maker ever!  Get a grip woman!

For me, the things that save the film are the location and the filming style.  The scenery shots are fantastic.  Most of the film is shot in Vancouver, which, in my opinion, is one of the most picturesque places in the world.  There's a scene where Bella and Edward are lying in a field filled with purple flowers.  Amazing!

As far as filming goes, their use of vibrant color teamed with washed out color produces outstanding results.  It's like someone turned up the blur tool in Photoshop and selectively chose certain images not to blur allowing them to pop.  The lighting makes each scene seem so surreal and magical.  So hats off to the director for that one!

I asked my hubby if he were able to choose, would he rather be a werewolf or a vampire.  After careful thought and analysis he replied, "I've always wanted to be a werewolf, but I think that I should answer vampire.  Vampires are portrayed better, you know, smarter, cooler, and sexier.  So I feel like I'm more of a vampire."

What?!?  Where did this man come from?  I want to have fifty of his babies, I swear. 

Me: "What book should we read tonight, darling?"

Our child: "Hmmm...Mom, I really want to read Not the Hippopotamus, but I think that I should answer Harold and the Purple Crayon.  His expressive nature shown through the use of his purple crayon feels more like me.  Plus it's longer, so I won't have to go to bed right away."

I can't say that I will thoroughly enjoy the rest of the movie when I watch it tonight, but at least I can chuckle every time I see a werewolf or a vampire.

Breaking news just in!

OMG bloggies!  I just heard the best news EVER!  Guess...

Okay you're never going to guess so I'll just tell you.  Brett Erlich will be the new host of InfoMania as of January 20th!  HOORAY!!!

Sorry Conor Knighton.  I really did like you as a host, but I'm kind of partial to Brett...so move on over.  But good luck to you in all of your future endeavors!  You really did do an awesome job and I'm looking forward to seeing what you'll do next.

Here's the video clip that proves it's true:


Excited, excited, excited!

Are you...*gasp* sick?!?

Are you one of those people that will never admit to being sick?  I am.  In my house, I am never sick.  I may have a runny nose, a non-stop cough, and a splitting headache, but the words "I think I have a cold." will never be uttered out of my mouth.  You can't make me say it!

Actually, if anyone other than my husband asks if I am sick, I may confess to feeling ill.  But if he asked, I'd never admit it. 

Why this weirdness about whether or not I am sick?

After years of careful observation I have come to the conclusion that every time that he gets me to admit that I am indeed sick he has to go and top my sickness with an even worse one.  Then I end up taking care of myself and him.  Not to mention, I think that about 80% of all of his illnesses are psychosomatic.  You whisper the word sick and he's already busting out the thermometer...lol.

So if you feel ill around him, do not, I repeat, DO NOT tell him.  He'll come home 20 minutes later telling me that he feels sick and will mysteriously have a 101 degree fever with no other symptoms.  That train is never late!  (I love you darling, but you know that I speak the truth...lol.)

Am I sick?  *Cough, cough, sniffle, sniffle*  Nope! :)

Jogging by photo

By now you should know that I am a bit strange.  Maybe even considered a bit eccentric at times.  I have to say that I was having one of those 'crazy Arielle' days yesterday.  It was probably due to the weather; the sun was out and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.  The extreme opposite of the previous day...and today for that matter, which looks like this...

Look Mom!  There's a mini waterfall in your driveway!  Also, sorry Dad.  Your car cover blew off right after I took this photo and I wasn't about to struggle in the rain/wind storm to put it back on again.  It's on the ground next to your car, now protecting the grass...lol.  Sorry, I've failed you, but don't worry I'm still dry.

Anyways...

Yesterday, when the sun was shining and the weather was fantastic, I decided to go for a jog on my lunch break.  I thought it would be kind of fun to take my camera and get some jogging action shots.  (Totally inspired by the movie "Yes Man".  I love that Zooey Deschanel!  So zany and free.)  Just in case you were wondering, I totally did look like a crazy person jogging and snapping photos at the same time.

The sun was wonderful for about 20 minutes...then it was just hot.  I was cooking.  Though I did get a wee bit of a tan, which is nice.  Would have been nicer if I were wearing a bikini, but alas I was not.  So I also picked up a wee bit of a tank top tan...not so nice.  Please remind me next time I say I want to go for a jog at 1:30pm that I will be a hot, sweaty, weird tanned mess.  Thank you.

Started my jog off with this beautiful view... 

 Here's the mountain close up.  "Beautiful!  Wish you were here!" (Name that movie.)

While jogging someone driving along yelled out, "Hey sexy!" at me.  Being from Kailua, I'm sure it was someone that I know.  If you are or even if you aren't, thanks for the compliment.  You made my day! 

So without further debut, my action jogging photos.  Keep in mind that they are meant to be blurry.

This one is my favorite.  I love the blur and the angle.  I kind of want this hanging on my wall.

It's me!  

I usually jog in the evening, so I forgot all the cool things that you get to see during the day...like parents picking up their kids from school, crossing guards, all the little lawn ornaments that people adorn their yards with, etc.  I had to stop and take a few still photos of the things that I saw.  This wouldn't be quality material if I didn't go above and beyond the call of duty!  I do it for you my friends, I do it all for you.

Check out the cool cloud display!  Awesome and something you definitely don't see in the evening.

The best thing about Kailua is that pretty much everyone is working towards a cause.  Ever wonder where those "Take, Leave, Whatevas" HI-5 recycle bins come from?  These are your people.  They also run their own Free Store.  I've seen it for years and every time I pass it I think I should leave something there.  I'll look around my house when I get home for something to leave.  Don't worry I'll be sure to take a picture of it.

No jog around Enchanted Lake would be complete without a picture of the lake.  It's beautiful.  Too bad it kind of smells, huh?

The burning hot sun was weighing on me by the last leg of my jog.  Then I saw a sign that read "Thirsty?" in bold letters and I thought "Why yes I am!".  In smaller letters, under "Thirsty?", it read, "Cool off with your pet."  Though I don't have a pet, I still went over to drink the water and cool off for a bit.  It was nice!  I love that pretty much every public water fountain in Kailua also has a doggy drinking fountain.  We love our dogs out here!

I saved the best for last.  The randomness of this scene caught my eye.  Who has not one, not two, but exactly three shoes to tie together and throw over the telephone wire?  I too am baffled, as shoes usually come in pairs...lol.

I hope that you enjoyed jogging with me since,  if you live in Hawaii, it's something you probably won't be able to do yourself for the next few days.  Stinking cold front!  But on the bright side, you will be able to log in plenty of snuggle time.

Correction...rainy days, I hate you...

The rainy day post turned out to be somewhat of a double edged sword yesterday.  Mostly because I was so excited to be able to go home and snuggle after work, but was greeted by this....

A power outage in Maunawili...again.  (The power goes out back there all the time, but ironically its only our street and two other streets near us.  Everyone else has power.  Conspiracy?  I think so...)  My house was pitch black and it was only 6:30pm!

Thanks to Grandma Shannon for buying us these super cool battery operated candles.  I busted them out, using my cell phone as a flashlight, and they worked like a charm.  Plus I had enough of them to put one in every room of the house.  I'll never be without light again!

 Here's the close up.  Yes, that's a nail polish bottle in front of the candle.  My favorite color to date actually!  OPI's La Paz-itivley Hot.  The cutest hot pink out there.  A must have for all seasons.

Though, when the power goes out I will still be without hot water.  The water in Maunawili gets super cold probably because we are right up against the mountain.  If there's no hot water it's seriously like taking a bath with iced water, no matter what time of year it is!  Anyone have a solution for that during a power outage?

Here's my hate mail to HECO a la The Little Rascals...

Dear Hawaiian Electric Company,
I hate your stinking guts.  You make me vomit.  You're scum between my toes!
Love,
Arielle

I'm just kidding!  I'm sure that they were trying their hardest to get it fixed in a timely manner.  I saw them and see them working on it every time there's an outage.  I'm sure they are fixing the same thing every time.  I wish that they would just figure out why the outages only occur on three streets.  I swear our power is out like 4 or 5 times a month.  I don't even bother to reset my oven clock, it goes out so often.  The clock just blinks at me constantly now...lol. 

So HECO workers if you're reading this, please try your hardest to fix it!  Pretty please with a cherry on top!  Thanks.

Rainy Days and Mondays

While most people are complaining about snow, people in Hawaii are complaining about rain.  It has been raining buckets today.  As my Mom would say, when I was a child, "It's duck weather."

Today is, for sure, "duck weather".

Most of the time I love my sunny days and honestly by the end of winter I am totally craving them, but every once in awhile it's nice to have a pouring buckets rainy day.  It's fun. 

You get to pull out all of your warmest, fuzziest, plushiest blankets and snuggle.  I must confess, I am a snuggler.  It's an addiction of mine.  I love fuzzy blankets.  I can't get enough of them.  I have about 5 in my house.  I think that they are all out on my couch right now.  I use all of them no matter what the weather is.  It could be 80 degrees and sunny, but I'll face the fan to blow right on me so that I can sit under a blanket.  I have issues...don't worry, I know this.

So go ahead, curl up under your blanket!  You can curl up and read a book in your nice quiet house...if you are able to sneak in some alone time.  Or you can curl up with your special someone and watch a romantic movie.  Or if you have kids, as I know some of you do, you can curl up with those little nuggets of joy and watch a silly kids movie.  My personal favorite right now is "Despicable Me".

Video treat!  "It's so fluffy!"...sorry I couldn't help myself.

Oooh and don't forget the hot chocolate!  On cold, blistery days such as this one hot chocolate is so essential.  (It's a freezing 73 degrees right now.  Hey, it's going to drop to 64 degrees tonight!  Call me a wienie if you must, but I'm tropical, so that's pretty damn cold to me.)

In honor of the hot chocolate tradition, here is the from scratch recipe that I use:

Hershey's Hot Cocoa

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup Hershey's Unsweetened Cocoa

Dash of Salt

1/3 cup hot water

4 cups of milk

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mini marshmallows or whipped cream

Stir together sugar, cocoa, and salt in medium sauce pan; stir in water.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil.  Boil and stir for about two minutes.

Add milk and vanilla extract and heat to serving temperature.  Do not boil...or your milk will get funky.

Top with mini marshmallows or whipped cream.  If you want to be extra cool add sprinkles on top of that.  The kids go nuts for them!

Note: If you like frothy hot chocolate stir with a whisk rather than a spoon.

If your husband is like mine and will only drink hot chocolate made from scratch and you just don't have the energy or the time for it, make it from the hot cocoa packets and add in a few drops of vanilla extract right before you serve it.  No one will be the wiser, trust me!  (Shhh!  Don't tell him that I do that sometimes.  It's our little secret.)

Happy Rainy Monday!  Here's to a great rest of the week!

2011 resolutions, goals, or whatever else you call them

Each year I try to think of a good New Years resolution to work towards.  You know, just a little something to keep me out of trouble and off the streets...lol.  It usually ends up being some weight loss goal, like everyone else in the universe vows when midnight rolls around, and then eventually ends up down the drain the next week when I have to finish all the holiday candy around the house before it goes bad.

So I started thinking about why my resolutions never come to fruition.  It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that I have the attention span of a four year old...no that's not it.  Maybe it's because I never voice my resolutions to anyone (Sometimes I whisper them when no one is around....just kidding.  If I did that then I really would be crazy...lol.), thus there is no one there to keep me accountable.

Will you be my someone?  It's my blog and you're reading it, so you really have no choice...unless you look away right now.  So if you don't want to be my accountable someone (Meanie...yeah that's right, I'm talking to you, meanie.), click away and pretend like you didn't see this. 

2011 Goals  

(I think that I like the word goals better than resolutions.  It sounds more positive.  Just me?  All right...)

1. Blog more.  At least 3 times a week.  You like this one, eh?  I thought I should start off with the fun stuff first.
2. Cook more.  At least one night a week.  Despite my various cooking posts, I rarely cook at home.  It takes effort and ingredients.  The store is too far away from my house...so I have to plan what I need for my meals.  I hate planning.  It physically pains me.  Don't worry I'll get over it.  Putting on my big girl face right now and sucking it up.  I'm not going to lie, this goal will probably be written off within the week...lol.
3. Eat less.  Smaller, nutrient filled, portions more times a day.  I eat too much junk and not enough veggies.  Less of everything except the veggies.
4. Continue my exercise regime.  Maybe even take it to the next level.  I don't even know what that would be, but that would be hardcore!
5. Make an effort to keep my house slightly cleaner than it is right now.  I'll be honest, this probably isn't going to happen.  Just pretend that you never read it.
6. Get really excited over little things.  At a restaurant: "Oh they serve bread here?  YAY!!!!!"
7. Learn another language.  Like Italian!  Well, finish learning another language...I told you, the attention span of a four year old.
8. Possibly open a French Bakery.  You know...if there's time. 

I think that having someone to keep me accountable could be the difference between realizing my goals versus living them...lol.  Thanks for keeping me honest in 2011.

2011...here we come!

I hope that this post finds all of you in blogland safe and sound.  We've survived another holiday season people!  A miracle has happened, indeed!

So what did you do to ring in the new year?  I'm dying to know, probably just about as much as you are dying to know what I did....so leave me a comment will ya?  Lol...hint, hint...sorry I couldn't help myself. :)

Well, I won't keep you in suspense any longer.  I'm sure that you were checking my blog all weekend long to hear from me, seeing as how I've collected almost 3,000 site hits.  (Thanks peeps!  "You love me.  You really love me!"  Sorry I was MIA.  Hey, I'm a busy lady.  Gathering all this grade A, top choice writing material takes time...lol.)  Believe it or not, I spent the morning part of my New Years Eve at the gym.  Boring!  No, not really.  Wait for it...pause for dramatic effect...my husband went with me.  Yes, I got the man to wake up on a day off and go to the gym with me!  Shocking, isn't it?  Miracles were happening!

He hates to exercise.  I mean HATES it.  So I was kind of surprised that he went with me.

Well, in his defense I did ask him to go like 10 times before he said yes.  It went something like this:

Me: "You will go to the gym, yes?"  

Him: "No."

Me: "You want to, yes?  It will be fun!"  

Him: "No."

Me: "Gym, yes?"

Him: "Will you stop bothering me if I say yes?"

Me: "Possibly."

Him: "Then yes."

Me: "Yay!"  

See we're a match made in heaven!

For his first time at the gym he did really well.  (I expected a lot more complaining...though I was kind of expecting his first time at the gym to be like mine where I whined the whole time and randomly yelled out "Why?!?  Why do I hate myself so much as to subject myself to this exercise hell?  Wwhhhhhyyyyyy?!?".  I'm just kidding.  I'm not that dramatic!)  He got through most of my workout routine, which is pretty hard now that I've been training with Cheynah for awhile.  So he gets a gold star in my book.  Good job darling!

Did I mention that he still agreed to go to the gym with me even after jogging with me a few nights before?  Well, he really jogged after me.  Let me explain.  We went walking in Maunawili with a few friends and I decided to jog.  I figured I would jog until I needed a break, let them catch up with me, and then start jogging again.  (I'm not going to force everyone to jog.  I'm not that much of a bossy pants...lol.)  Near our house there's a mile long loop, with a super kick ass hill that starts the mile track.  I figured we'd do 3 laps around.  3 miles isn't that much, right?  Hehe...okay it's a little much.  I saw everyone getting that "I'm so over this." look on their faces by the second time around.  So I figured that I would jog as fast as I could and try to lap them on my 3rd lap, therefore leaving them only to finish off their 2nd lap rather than a 3rd.  If I could have jogged a little faster this would have worked, but unfortunately I'm not as fast as I would like to be...or maybe than I thought I was...lol.  Unbeknownst to me, our two friends went home after they finished their 2nd lap, I was probably in the middle of my 3rd lap at that point, which left my husband looking for me.  He figured that I would be right around the corner, so he started jogging to catch up with me.  He jogged and jogged and jogged.  I was almost at the end of my 3rd lap when I heard pounding footsteps behind me and a familiar voice yelling "Stop jogging!  Stop right now!"  I stopped and we walked the rest of the way home.  I congratulated him on jogging pretty much a 6 minute mile, up hill.  He said "Yeah I was running pretty fast.  I'm sure that if you were jogging behind me, you would have seen flames.  That's how fast I was going."  Lol...that's why I married him.  He never fails to make me laugh.  Plus, he's pretty darn handsome too.

Getting back to New Years Eve... (Sorry for the side track, but I couldn't leave that out.  It was too funny not to mention.)

After the gym we hung out at home and rested.  Well, he rested and frequently shot me a glance that read "Woman, you are trying to kill me." as he hobbled around the house because his "muscles are sore".  (That was also the excuse for the many massages that I had to give over the weekend, since it was my fault that he was in pain because I physically dragged him to the gym at gun point...no mention whatsoever that his muscles are weak from lack of exercise and excess of video game playing over the past few months...lol.  He did hurt his shoulder a few months ago and wasn't really able to exercise, so it's not entirely his fault.  But I'm taking it upon myself to get him back out there.  Not exercising isn't helping his shoulder to get any stronger, now is it?  I wouldn't be a good wife if I didn't push him to be his very best.)

Once he was all rested and had stopped glaring at me (Okay, I gave him a Red Bull!  I admit it...feeding the addiction.  I know, I know!), we headed out for a night of food, fireworks, and fun with family and friends.

Party number one, Hawaiian food at Aunty Sonya's house.  Yum, yum!  Thanks Aunty Sonya and family for the ono grinds and good laughs.  It's always a fun New Years at your house.

Party number two, appetizers and dessert at Adam and Jenna's house.  Okay so there may have been a jello shot or two and a glass of wine in there as well.  (The jello shots were crazy!  Adam hallowed out a lemon and filled the peel with jello.  Then he sliced them to look like lemon wedges.  They were a work of art!  I almost didn't want to eat them.)  All were delicious, especially the spinach and artichoke dip!  It was an intimate party, but I wouldn't have had it any other way!

2011, I'm ready to tackle you head on.  I can't wait to see what adventures you have in store.  Here's to friends, family, and fun in the new year ahead.  Happy New Year everyone!