Alaska

We just got back from a fantastic cruise to Alaska. I'd never been on a cruise before, and I loved it! We brought plenty to entertain ourselves on the days we were just cruising, and weren't bored for a minute. And - despite others' experiences - there was totally a 24-hour buffet, 24-hour pizzeria, 24-hour deli sandwich bar, and 24-hour ice cream bar. We chose to be seated in the dining room for most meals, but I guess Carnival is the cruise line with all the buffets.

Anyway, we arrived in Anchorage pretty late, ate dinner, and went to bed. My dad sprang for the Presidential Suite at the hotel - the one where you have to put a key in the elevator to get it to go to your floor. It was pretty extravagant seeing as we were only in the rooms for like 12 hours, but it was pretty swanky.

The next morning, we all piled into a limosine (another extravagance!) and our driver gave us a small tour of Anchorage and drove us through a wildlife preserve. We stopped by a beautiful glacial lake and finally made it to the boat.

Check-in was super-easy, and the first thing Jonathan and I did was book ourselves the spa special - a one-hour full body massage and mini-facial. It was pretty awesome, and a great way to start a relaxing vacation.

The bed on the boat was surprisingly comfortable. The first night I didn't sleep very well because of the movement of the boat and the engine rumbling, but I got accustomed to it pretty soon, and by the end of the trip I actually found it pretty comforting. I'm going to miss that rumbling!

New Roommate

I found an apartment in Waco! It's exactly what I wanted - I really can't believe my good fortune! I will be staying with a first-year law student named Katie in the graduate student housing complex right off campus. She is cool with me only sleeping there 2 nights a week, and this way I have a place to crash on Mon and Wed nights as well as between classes on Tues and Thurs. The rent is exactly the amount I had said that I wanted to pay, and it just couldn't have worked out any better. Yay! I can officially cross this one off the List of Things to Do. So happy!

Chicken

I realize now that I don't like eating chicken. All we have in our freezer is chicken breasts, and I am practically gagging thinking about how much I don't want to eat it. Here's what I think my problem is: they are skinless, boneless chicken breasts. So, if I just cook them with salt and pepper or whatever, they will be so bland and dry that I want to gag. I put Jonathan on a mission to find a good chicken sauce. But then the problem becomes "do we have the ingredients to make the sauce in our house?" The answer about 85% of the time is no. Because when we're down to just a bunch of frozen chicken breasts, that means we're pretty much out of everything. And if I go to the store, I will buy a bunch of groceries that I will eat instead of said frozen chicken breasts, and then all I will be left with at the end is a bunch of frozen chicken breasts. It is a vicious cycle.

We are trying to make an effort to be healthy before we go on our cruise. I have never been on one before, but from what I hear, cruises are a constant food-fest. I'm assuming this food-fest comes in buffet form. I can pretty much control myself at buffets as far as portions go because I think buffets are gross, but I'm not so good with making healthy choices. I'm much more likely to just eat the pizza or the fried whatever instead of braving the possibly bacteria-infested grilled vegetables that have been sitting there all afternoon because everyone is eating the pizza.

Anyway, if any of you know of a good chicken sauce that doesn't have a lot of complicated (ie, perishable) ingredients, please send the recipe to me. You would be greatly assisting me in my efforts to 1) actually eat all of the frozen chicken in my freezer instead of just going to Taco Cabana and 2) be a healthier person in general. Thanks!

Stuck in the Bahamas!

J and I just got back from the Bahamas, and boy, was it fun! We got there on Sunday afternoon, and I was very excited about our oceanview suite. It certainly had an oceanview, but unfortunately the whole ambience was rather marred by the fact that our room was stuck between the elevators and the air conditioning unit for the whole building. So, while we could technically see the ocean, all we could hear was the air conditioner hum-hum-humming and the elevator dinging. I had to wear ear plugs at night because it was so loud. Disappointed in the value for our money, we asked the hotel if they would let us switch rooms, and they put us in an oceanfront room for the next two nights at no additional cost. THIS, my friends, was a vacation! The view was gorgeous, and much relaxation was had! Here is a photo of 75% of my vacation:

That's me sitting on our new balcony, reading a trashy romance novel. Paradise.

Our trip was great until the end when our plane broke, our flight was canceled, and we were forced to stay an extra night, meaning that J had to take an unplanned extra day of vacation. I know, I know - poor me, I had to stay an extra day in the Bahamas. Boo hoo! But, really, when that extra day is spent sitting in the airport, it's just not that fun.

Anyway, we are back in Dallas now getting ready for our cruise to Alaska in two weeks! Yaaaaay! I love to travel. I think I am going to start a travel blog in addition to this one. Yippee! Here is another picture of us dressed up for dinner. We have been taking good pictures lately - must be the new camera!

Graduation

I graduated last Saturday. Much fun was had!

This is me getting bonked on the head by a large 16th century book titled "Prince Arthur: A Heroick Poem." I had never heard of it before, but it's about Arthur, so I guess it was appropriate. It looks like she's going to hit me pretty hard, but it wasn't that bad.

Afterwards we all went to Medieval Times for dinner. It was pretty fun. I had never been before and was shocked to discover that they do not give you utensils! You have to just drink your soup out of the bowl and eat half a roast chicken with your fingers. Weird! But fun. It's officially over! Yaaaaay!

Fat Fatty Fatterson

Toad has been limping all week, and it's getting to the point where he can barely make it up and down the street on his walks. So, I took him to the vet yesterday to see what's going on. It turns out he's got arthritis in his left back knee, so we have him on anti-inflammatories to see if that helps him. However, the vet also weighed him and he has gained 2 1/2 pounds in the last two years! For a 15-pound dog, that is like 20% his body weight! He's a total fatso, and it's ironically because the joint food we feed him (vet recommended) is so high in fat. So, Toad is on a diet, and he needs to lose 2 pounds. Of course that will help get some pressure off of his knee, and hopefully the combination of the medicine and the weight loss will stop his limping!

Hester

So we started shopping for a car this weekend. On Monday we test drove the Dodge Avenger and Chrysler Sebring, and I really didn't like either one of them. We were interested in the Ford Fusion, and I found an ad for one at a Kia dealership in Lewisville for an incredibly good price. So, we drove all the way to Lewisville only to have them tell us they sold the Fusion last week. I was pretty miffed. Anyway, we test drove the Kia Optima and the Kia Spectra while we were there, and they were cute, but nothing spectacular. As we were driving away, we passed a giant Honda dealership with a huge "HAIL SALE" sign on it. We stopped by. Apparently Lewisville had a huge hailstorm last month, and a ton of cars were damaged so they were offering pretty big discounts on brand new cars with minor damage. Both Jonathan and I really like manual transmission cars, and they had five Civics with manual transmission and minor hail damage. We test drove one and were both really impressed with the car. We agreed to sit down and talk about numbers, never intending to buy a new car - we hadn't even brought our checkbook. After quite a bit of haggling over the hail damage discount, they actually caved in to our incredibly low-ball offer! We are now the proud owners of a Honda Civic named Hester. Here she is: