We're on our way...almost

Tomorrow at approximately 4:45 pm we will be boarding a place to San Francisco airport. Then later that evening we will embark on the 14(!) hour flight from San Fran to Sydney, Australia. We will spend a week there at the Sydney Marriott, and then we fly to Wellington New Zealand on the 8th. Then from Wellington, we take a train to the north and arrive in Auckland NZ. The whole trip will span about 19 days. This is kind of a big deal. :) I will have lots of pictures, stories and experiences to share with everyone soon.

How to blog the trip?

So we are at the two week mark for our trip to Sydney/NZ. We are bringing lappy, my husband's mini video camera, and a regular digital camera. I want to document the trip, and so I also bought a new paper journal. I don't know how much internet access I will have, especially in New Zealand, where the hotels are bragging about their "dial up" connections. I'm tempted to create a youtube account with Ben and maybe upload videos for people, or to write in my laptop's word pad and just upload it all later. If I write in the paper journal, I probably won't ever put it on the internet, and I know a lot of people want to hear about the experience. Decisions, decisions.

Next Stop Sydney

The plane tickets are booked. There is no turning back. Now we just need to get a place to stay.

wonderful christmas time

Ben and I took the weekend to do some Christmas shopping and to finally put up the tree and decorations. We grew some sunflowers out in our garden this summer and the remaining dead flowers look really sad in the yard. So Ben made them look even more pathetic by decorating them as a sad little tree. He thinks its great, I think it looks sad and dead. What do you think?



We also put up our cute little Christmas tree. Someday we may give in and get a full sized one, but for now, this one is the perfect size.



Then we put up the stockings. The cats have four stockings. (two are just toys from last year) and Ben has one. I don't have a stocking here, mine is still at my parent's house.



I love this stocking because the kitty looks like Tiger Lily. Yes we are "those people" who are obsessed with their cats. It's what I have to work with until we have kids, kay?



And here is Ben's cute little stocking. We don't really have a good place to hang them, so they kind of randomly hang from the ceiling all over the living room.

We are almost done with gift shopping. I am very relieved. I am sad to report that due to our work schedules we will not be traveling to Rifle this year. While I am glad to not have to worry about the weather and the roads, I will miss my family. :(

I know it's been a while

I bet you all thought I forgot about this blog, but I haven't. I still like to read other people's posts all the time. I just never feel like my exploits are worth sharing.

This weekend Ben and I took advantage of my deeply discounted employee rates and stayed at the Downtown Marriott. We had a delightfully delicious dinner at the Melting Pot. My problem with going downtown is that there is nowhere to park. We were going to be late until the hostess suggested using their valet.

We had a nice dinner with cheese fondue as an appetizer, a salad and then a variety of chicken, duck, pork, steak and vegetables cooked in a mojo style. We decided against dessert.



Then we must have waited 25 minutes for the valet to get our car. I was pissed. It was cold outside, and they do not have heaters like other restaurants do. For that money and time, we could have parked 5 blocks away and hoofed it. How hard is it to find a purple Honda Fit? I could tell the valet knew he did a bad job when he finally brought the car up, so I didn't feel guilty about not paying or tipping. We were supposed to pay $4 for the valet, but he didn't even wait or ask for it.

Later that night we decided to ride Trax down to the Library station to go to the Salt Lake Roasting company. We ended up paying $4 on tickets before we realized we were still in the free fare zone. So we paid the money regardless. :) We went to the roasting company because they have really good desserts. Even if you don't drink coffee they have really good cheesecake, flan, cookies, muffins, you name it. Ben got a chai and a fruit covered cake thing. I had a slice of chocolate raspberry cake. So good.



Ben ended up spilling his chai all over me and breaking the glass on the table. I had little shards of glass in my lap. It made me look like I'd wet my pants, plus it made the walk back to pants a lot colder. :( He felt very bad about it though, and is still apologizing. The Roasting Co was pretty nice about the broken glass too.

The next morning we checked out pretty early and found this little diner Ben had been to like 20 years ago to have breakfast. It was called Over the Counter cafe. It was packed and very much a greasy spoon, but absolutely great. The kind of place you'd see on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

It was nice to get away even for a night. We are planning a big trip next year, and we will be saving, so we won't be able to do this kind of thing as often. So it's nice to take advantage when we can.
School is almost out for the semester and I can't wait for the break!

aquarium day

Sorry it's taken me so long to update. I really haven't felt like there's been anything worth posting for awhile.

Yesterday was my team outing at work. It was like being back in elementary school and going on a field trip. We went to the living planet aquarium in Sandy, just down the street from my house.

I tried to take some pictures but without the flash (and sometimes even with) my camera doesn't do very well.

Spring (birthday) break

So this week was the highly anticipated Spring Break from school. I knew that the chances of having both work and school off at the same time were slim to none, so I made sure I took some PTO. Ben also decided to take some time off from the radio station, as he almost never gets any time off.
We went to Wendover on Wednesday and spent a night at the Montego Bay. I lost at Keno, as always. (although I did win the first time I ever played) I also played way too many slot machines trying to get the free spins. Ben played blackjack and lost $20 in like 5 minutes because the dealer kept coming up with 21 when he would have 20. We at delicious Chili Verde at the casino buffet of all places and I had my favorite tequila sunrise. All in all it was a great trip.

Friday was my birthday, Ben as always spoiled me.



Between the cooking trainer for ds and the cookbook, I should be able to become quite the chef. He also got me the dvds of the tv series "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" but that had to be ordered from amazon.

On my birthday, we also had to make the pilgrimage to Park City so I could visit mecca the Coach Outlet. I had to get myself a birthday present as well.



I absolutely love the color.

Finally Ben and his grandparents had one more surprise for me.



It was a delicious ice cream cake from Coldstone Creamery. Chocolate cake with mint ice cream. It was verreh tasty.



So the week is drawing to an end. Tomorrow means a return to both work and school. It will be nice to get back to the ol' MVCI gang, but otherwise, I could wish I could take another week off!