Heading home

thats right in only 24 short hours i will be home, maybe less if i can catch the earlier flight

how exciting...

speaking of dogs..

So every time ben travels somewhere, it seems something horrible happens back home.. one of the reasons i tell ben he can't leave home anymore

well this trip is no exception

We lost a loved member of our family today. Our eldest dog Sadie is no longer with us.

She was 14+ years old and had a lot of spirit in her until the end. She would always keep up with the younger dogs and was always there to protect us.

We will all miss you Sadie

sadie and me..
 

sadie.
 

The good and the bad of Amsterdam

The good and bad of Amsterdam.

Amsterdam doesn't totally suck. In fact it has some nice things to go along with the stupid things

First the stupid things:
impossible to drive around even with GPS
smoking everywhere - yuck
the euro coins. you walk around with so much change.

Now the good things:
Pear juice. its awesome and everywhere
the food has been really good this trip - more on that later
and they let dogs into the bars! - how cool is that?

and how cute is this guy? Its Keaton's long lost brother from Amsterdam

chasing the caffine dragon..

the other day i had my very first latte.. - i'm not a coffee drinker.. i hate the way coffee tastes.. but.. i had to take ben to the airport on very little sleep - and then go wait in the rain at REI - so i ordered the girlyest drink i could find - pumpkin spice latte - which was ok - it tasted good except for the coffee part..
by the end of the coffee i think i was the happiest i have ever been.. all of a sudden it was great to be alive, and i was so happy to be awake at that early hour, and the rain was a beautiful thing, and it didn't matter that ben was going away for ten days.. he'll be home soon.. - i was like pollyanna on crack..
i now understood why people who don't have their morning coffees are super grumpy.. i understood why all my girls hit up starbucks before class.. purchasing a $100 starbucks gift card made perfect sense to me.
i loved that feeling...

i loved it so much that yesterday i tried a vanilla latte (trying something new) just so see if that's how caffeine works on me.. and.. turns out that nope.. the pumpkin spice latte was a one time thing.. couldn't duplicate that feeling.. now i am sad.. i was so looking forward to exploring this new caffeine world..
perhaps the secret was the pumpkin spice latte - i might have to try another one..

Traveling to Amsterdam

This morning i was in San Deigo in the rain

Now this evening (plus one day) i'm in Amsterdam

its kind of weird to think that you can jump on a plane and be anywhere.

I only slept a little on the plane so its been a really long day

Here is a little video of the sunset on the way out there and the sunrise as we got there

tut tut it looks like rain..

it's raining in san diego.. and i LOVE it.. it's the perfect day for me and the puppies to go back to bed...

oops i did it again..

yes.. the aforementioned rei sale..
this is the 'used gear' sale.. what happens is that people return things to rei - and they can't resale them at normal price - so they drastically mark things down - and sell them to rei members.
truth be told i don't need anything.. yet i go to this sale 'just to see' -
but here is the problem.. this sale is addicting.. you get in there - and everything is such a good deal that you just start grabbing stuff - just because.. you don't really need it.. but it doesn't matter... you are saving so much money..
every time i go i spend way more then i wanted to.. as i did today..
i bought a new pair of running shoes (i justified them somehow)- but they were 120 dollar asics (my favorite) for 40 bucks
and a gym bag originally 70 bucks - but today - extra special for me - 30 bucks
- and there is more.. but i will spare you..
it was insane.. but.. so much fun.. thanks to matt, jess, and melody who waited in line with me.. and poor ben didn't get to be a part this time.. which is sad.. and he was missed.. but i'm sure i spent less money with him not being there..

Heading out to Amsterdam

Ok, i'm through security, sitting at the gate waiting for whatever.

thank you San Diego airport for getting on board and providing free Wi-Fi. Good job.

I'm just chilling now waiting to leave.

one quick stop over in Houston then off to Amsterdam

I miss chara already. She is waiting in line right now at REI for the big REI sale that i'm also missing. so sad.

I have no service in the aiport here. Bad AT&T.

Ben...

intrigued

ben's got me watching 'john of cincinnati' - it makes no sense.. watching it - i feel like i'm missing an episode - and if i watched that missing episode it would all make sense.. but i can't stop watching it.. it's very good.. it just makes no sense..
and.. today.. i found that it was canceled after 10 episodes.. now i'll never know..
and yet i can't stop watching..

midnight madness..

it's 11:46 - and i just finished the first paper due this semester..
it's due tomorrow AM.. so - i'm off to get 4 wonderful hours of sleep.. and then i will be heading off to class.. finished paper in hand.. thank the good lord..

- on a positive note.. i would have gotten the paper done sooner.. but instead ben dragged me to a brandi carlile concert this evening.. which ended up being awesome.. she does a great cover of folsom prison blues - i highly recommend checking it out..

Tupperware for days

so i finally installed some slide-out shelve things for our kitchen island and some other cabinets in our kitchen. In doing so we cleaned out all the stuff in there and now we have so much extra stuff its amazing.

so if anyone anywhere out there needs Tupperwere... you know who to call.

home for the holidays..

..i know it's premature.. but.. ben and i are thinking about what we're going to be doing for christmas.. we looked up flights today - three months in advance - and it'll cost us almost a thousand bucks to fly to washington state for the holidays.. does that sound insane to anyone else?

itsy bitsy spider..

deborah called me this morning very concerned.. she had learned some information about africa that urgently needed to be shared with me..
deborah: 'kai.. you can't go to africa... know why? they have these big spiders.. and they make these big webs.. and if you get caught in the web the spider eats your eyes.. and then it eats you...'
-i, of course, had no intention of heading to africa this afternoon.. but deborah would only get off the phone after i promised not go to africa today..
about a minute later.. she gets me back on the phone to tell me about this other spider.. that has a big 'bottom' - not as big as ours - but pretty big.. and a red thing on it's belly - and 'you can't touch the red thing or your done for - your a gonner..'
and then deborah says, 'know what kai.. you probably should not touch spiders.. if you see a spider, you should call me and i'll tell you if it's ok to touch.. but just try not to touch them...'
*lesson for today *don't touch spiders - but if you absolutely must.. give deborah a call..

money for nothing..

on tuesday i spent 150 bucks on books from barnes and nobel.. which would normally make me a very happy camper.. but.. the books were for school = no fun..
then.. because of car pool issues i had to spend another 140 bucks on a parking pass...
only 9 more months.. the count down begins..

thank goodness...

for aunt tamie's pool.. it was 100+ degrees all weekend... big thanks to aunt tamie and uncle rex for being generous and sharing their pool.. it was nice, relaxing, and most importantly cool.. seriously.. thanks you guys.. it made this weekend bearable..

Newsflash: Its Hot

Its really hot