Dear Real Housewives of Atlanta,

I don't think I can watch you anymore.

Sure, I was never a huge fan; I certainly didn't seek you out or make you 'appointment television.'

But I would stop and stare if I stumbled upon you while flipping through the channels on a Sunday afternoon.  You provided entertainment while I would fold laundry or engage in some other innocuous task.

I just think it's best for me if we part ways.

While I've only seen a handful of your episodes, they seem to have an impact on me; and not in a good, 'inspire-me-to-become-a-humanitarian' way.  Rather, I've noticed that after I watch an episode, or even a part of one of your episodes, I have really ... aggressive... dreams.  There's no other word for it.

Usually, in my Real Housewives of Atlanta influenced slumber, I'm involved in an argument with someone over something stupid.  Sometimes, I'm directly involved in this argument and sometimes I'm just an observer.

I always hear the phrase "Bitch, please!" somewhere in my dreams nightmares. This is not restful.

I don't enjoy having visions of some wig-headed harpy attack me for, i don't know, drinking riesling over chardonnay.

So, for that reason, I think it's time we parted ways.  Please don't try to tease me with your Shogun-length  Reunion episodes.  Or any "lost" footage.  I'd prefer it to stay lost.  It's just better this way.  My husband can no longer take the wild snapping of my fingers at 2:30 am anymore.  It's over.

All the best,
Missynation.

Bird's Eye View [Wednesday, February 2, 2011]

Or, this seemed like a good idea from the terrestrial confines of my computer.

Our first day in Kauai, we took a helicopter tour of the island.  After much research and many Trip Advisor reviews, I booked an "Extreme Island" tour with Mauna Loa helicopters (http://www.maunaloahelicoptertours.com/) which means that we both got a window seat and the doors were off the helicopter.
What was I thinking????  First of all, I have to give mad props to the folks at Mauna Loa Helicopters; they were awesome and it was worth every penny.  Highly, highly recommended.

Now, I'm not afraid of heights, but I'm not exactly super comfortable with them either.  So, as I was sitting in the helicopter and I look to my right and see... no door, just the skid of the chopper, my stomach starts to simultaneously sink and do somersaults all at the same time.

Then we lifted off.

Now, I know, logically, that I was pretty safe.  I was strapped in with a heavy duty seat belt, but that didn't really make it feel any better... 
 

Still freaking out...

For the first 20 minutes or so, I was terrified.  I would look out the non-existent window, and feel like I was about to hyperventilate.  I took lots of pictures, mostly by just holding the camera perpendicular to my head and hitting the button, not really framing or aiming the shot.  One hand was tightly holding onto my camera, the other hand had a death-grip on the handle right behind the pilots head.  They played music (hawaiian, of course) in between narration of the sights we were seeing and so I tried to focus on the music.
 

one of those pictures I took without looking...



After about 20 to 25 minutes, I calmed down a bit and was able to start to enjoy the ride.  My husband was looking at me wondering why I was freaking out (and I honestly didn't want to miss this opportunity) so I forced myself to focus on the music, breathing deeply, and enjoying the beautiful scenery below me.  (waaaay below me.)



Kauai Waterfalls



Waimea Canyon

Once we came up over the Na Pali coastline, most of the nerves had dissapated.  The Na Pali (which translates into "the cliffs") coast of Kauai is so stunningly, breathtakingly beautiful.  And, while we were flying over the water, we saw several whales.  Added bouns.

  

Na Pali Coast

It was really windy (an observation you can put in the 'obvious' column) and, stupidly, I was freaking out about my pony tail coming undone.  (no, i don't know what is wrong with me...)

By the end of the tour, I had calmed down and was able to actually look at what I was taking picures of.  Although, I was still a little relieved when the skids finally set down on the tarmac.



Back on solid ground

The one hour tour took us over the main town of Lihue, Poi'pu and the Spouting Horn, Waimaea Canyon, Port Allen and Hanapepe, the Na Pali coast, and the north shore of Kauai.  We also got to fly into a lot of the valleys along the Na Pali coast and into the "heart of the island", which was the center of a volcano that collaped in on itself.  Very cool and very beautiful.

Here are some more random pictures from the helicopter ride.  I'll try to pare it down, but there are lots of cool shots that I can share:
 

Even when I look at this picture, it still makes my stomach lurch a little



Na Pali Coast



Na Pali Coast



Na Pali Coast



The heart of the island



Waimea Canyon



Na Pali




Flying over Kauai

 

Over Kauai



Technical difficulties: Please Stand By

Well, I've been back from the Islands for a few days, and I have lots of posts saved up.  Unfortunately, it will be just little while longer before I will officially post them.

I don't think it's fair to post anything about Hawaii without pictures (if ever their was a place that begged for its story to be told through photos, it's Hawaii).

Too bad I discovered the other day that I have either lost or accidentally deleted the memory card with the pictures I took during the first part of the trip.  (oops... actually, "oops" doesn't really cover it.  I pretty much went through the entire stages of grief emotions upon putting the memory card that I thought was the right one in the computer only to see the words "No Data" on the screen.  "'No Data????' you bet your toochas there's data!!!  Loads and loads of DATA!!!! WHERE IS IT?????"  Amazing how those 2 words can dash any hopes against the newly formed volcanic rocks - of which I took some pretty sweet pictures!)

So, while I search for possibly another, hopefully correct, memory card, I'm trying to salvage what I can from my cell phone and other sources...

dangit...

Aloha!

I am going on vacation!

I am going to write some posts while on vacay, but, depending on if/when I can figure out how to add pictures from my iPad, I might not post the entries until later. So, bear with me. :-)

I spent most of yesterday traveling, from washington, dc and its freezing rain (one of the gate agents told us that our flight - at 7am - was one of the few flights to get out yesterday) to... KAUAI, HAWAII!!!!! YAY! (or, I should say aloha!)

So, we flew from Washington, DC to Atlanta to Los Angeles (where I was disappointed in the lack of celebrities and pretty people in the terminal - according to TMZ, that is where all the celbrities can be seen...) and then from LA to Lihue,Kauai,Hawaii! The flight wasn't that bad... As much as two 5+ hour flights back-to-back can be.

Last night when we got in, I realized I'd forgotten the map to where we were staying. I didn't stress too much; I figured we couldn't get too lost since it's an island. You know what I learned yesterday? You can actually get REALLY lost on an island. We did eventually make it, but we also got some unintentional exploring done.

Once we got settled in, we grabed a quick bite to eat at a local burger shack (I tried a "teriyaki burger" - it was pretty tasty) we headed back to our room and... Um... Crashed. At 9pm local time (which, in our defense is 2am DC time...)


I had a really cool pic of us with the Hawaii license plate on our rental car, but I just discovered that I didn't bring the right connector wire to upload the pics to the iPad... (grrrrr). Mind you, I seem to have EVERY OTHER TYPE of USB wire, but not the one for the camera,,, dangit.

If you want tissues that smell like an old man...

Then have I got something for YOU!

The good news is, after taking a sick day and sleeping (through some purely awful television), I finally kicked my cold to the curb!  A none too soon, either.

Unfortunately, my husband has been complaining of "something in the back of [his] throat" for about 6 days now.  So, not wanting him to suffer the same fate as me, I dashed out to our local CVS and picked up a bunch of supplies. (ok, mostly more nyquil, since I may have used all ours up...)  While there, I picked up some more tissues, because, as I learned last week, you can NEVER HAVE TOO MANY TISSUE BOXES!

Too bad I inadvertently picked up a box of the tissues with the Vicks stuff already in the tissue.  Imagine my suprise when I just needed to blow my nose after walking home in the sleet and I'm hit with a WALL O' MENTHOL!

Good Lord, folks!  It was ... um... overpowering.

And the little box looks so innocuous.

It looks so innocent, doesn't it?  "Oh, you just need a tissue?  Here, take one of mine.  What's that? You don't need an at home nasal lavage?  Oh well... consider it a twofer..."

In case you're wondering, there is a little "Vicks" symbol on the box.  It's the really small thing right under the really small "Puffs" logo.

The sad thing is, I'm suprised that I didn't smell them.  Although, since I just recently used one, my olfactory senses might be shot for the evening.  Even the cat won't come near them.  (although, perhaps I could use them as a new weapon in my fight to eat my dinner unencumbered and in peace...)

I suppose if my nose was (still) stuffed up, this would have been somewhat nice.  Otherwise, it was a wasabi-like sucker punch to the sinuses...

buyer beware...

Sick Day

I hate being sick.

I seem to have caught some nasty cold that has taken over my body for the last FIVE days.

Memo to cold: I'm done.  You can vacate the premises. Mission accomplished.  My nose is red and raw from constantly blowing it.  I don't remember what it feels like to be able to breathe out of both nostrils AT THE SAME TIME.  I have imbibed my weight in hot tea, orange juice and other fluids.  I have seen the new face of daytime television and it is not pretty.  You can leave now.  Sincerely, Me.

Seriously.  This has been my constant companion for the last 5 days.

And, at this point, this isn't even the original.  I think I am on Tissue Box 6.0, at least.

I stayed home sick today just so I could try to sleep this thing off.  And, I saw some very interesting things on TV.  For instance, I finally saw the Hoda & Kathie Lee section of the Today show.  That is a hot mess.  I thought the Saturday Night Live skits were kidding; they're not!  That is exactly what that show is like!  Then, I watched about 10 seconds of "The View" before I couldn't take it anymore and had to turn it off before the ghosts  of Jane Adams, Alice Paul, and Susan B. Anthony came to haunt me. So I turned to the newly svelte Drew Carry and The Price is Right! Of course there was a marathon of the Real Housewives of Topeka or something, but I continued on and discovered this show on the SciFy channel (which I rarely watch) called "Moonlight."  It was craptastic.  Which is to say, so bad that I could not turn away.  Apparently, Alex O'Laughlin is a vampire who is also a private detective and he hangs around with a reporter and they solve crimes together?!!?!  Now, while Alex O' whatshisname is pretty to look at, he is sooooooo wooden.  And yet, I watched it.  ALL AFTERNOON.

I am so ready for this cold to be over.  I can't take much more of this...

Happy (belated) New Year!

The holiday's kinda got in the way of my blogging, so I am going to try to give this another shot.  One thing that I find is frustrating is that I can't really decide what kind of blog I want this to be.  Do I want to focus soley on running and fitness?  Do I want to be more lifestyle related? Humor? I dunno.  So, I think it will be a hodgepodge of all sorts of things.

I'll start with one of the trips I took over the holidays.  The weekend before Chirstmas, hubs & I traveled up to Massachusettes to visit his family and have "early Christmas."  We flew Southwest out of BWI into Hartford, which is what we usually do when traveling up to Western Mass to visit the folks.

Since we got to pick our own seats and the plane was pretty empty, we took the exit row seats with extra legroom!



So much room!  I streched my legs all the way out!

We had a lovely feast and enjoyed watching the kids open their gifts.  Since one of my nieces is only 11 months old, she didn't quite get the idea of ripping open packages; but once we helped her tear off the giftwrap, she was excited to see all these new things to play with.  Apparently, both of my neices are very into Elmo, so when one started playing with her new Elmo toy, the other one dropped EVERYTHING and RAN over to where she heard the siren call of Elmo...  I guess this is when they learn the lesson of "sharing."
The following day, hubs and I wandered around Western Mass for a while seeing the "sights".



A store that sells only pet supplies and soda... niche marketing at its finest!

 Since we were meeting his Dad & Stepmom in Springfield for what I was assured would be "the best pizza I've ever had," we stopped by the Dr. Seuss Outdoor Sculpture Garden.  Did you know that Theodore Geisel (aka, Dr. Seuss) was born in Springfield, Mass and that is where the famous Mulberry Street is located?  Yep.  Well, now you do. (I happen to know a LOT of trivia about famous people/inventions/happenings in Western Mass that I've heard about over the years...)




The Lorax; he speaks for the trees




Oh the places you'll go!




Horton...



The Grinch & (poor) Max...

 After we wandered around the Sculpture Garden, we headed over to Red Rose, the mecca of pizza, I was told.  For YEARS, I have been informed that all the pizza we have been eating is "crap" or "ok" (the phrase "it's ok" is actually high praise in the pizza lexicon in our house.  Myself, being raised on Dominos and thinking that was pretty darn good, aparently has demonstrated rather pedestrian taste in pizza...)  So, whenever I would as hubs "have you ever had good pizza?" would receive a misty-eyed nostalgic response that "Red Rose in Springfield" has the best pizza ever. EVER.  So, given the opportunity, I felt like I simply had to try this.  I was worried that it had been so hyped up that it could never meet my expectations.  It did.  It was very tasty.  Unfortunately, I was so busy eating it that I failed to get a picture of it.  But trust me, it was good.  And well worth the effort it took to get it.  Now, if I could just figure out their secret and try to make it on my own so we don't have to hop on a plane or take an 8+ hour road trip everytime we get a hankerin' for really good pizza.

So, that's one thing I did over the holidays instead of blogging...