Shrimp Fest Recap

The Shrimp Fest was a lot of fun. KC-Star marched in the parade with the Co-op. The parade started in a local park, and then kind of made it's way through downtown Fernandina. It was actually a pretty good walk (per KC-Star - I was sitting on my butt eating candy), but she and the kids made it through. They were very cute, and received a large ovation from the grandstand when they walked by. I was actually surprised by the length of the parade - 100+ entries. The last float was a pirate ship - they fire off the cannon (loud) and many of the pirates were shooting the old-fashioned flintlock pistols (surprising, even louder than the cannon).

The actual Shrimp Fest started a couple of days later. There were a lot more people, and a few of those people may have been drinking adult beverages. They used to have shrimp boat races, but apparently, it was too dangerous. Instead, the emphasis has been placed on art and antiques. The Palace saloon, which is the oldest bar still in operation in Florida, has this drink called Pirate Punch. It goes down REALLY easy, and packs a bit of a whallop. And in the words of the immortal Forrest Gump - that's all I'm gonna say about that.

We are both ready for the summer. We purchased some beach chairs (they fold into a backpack which makes for easy carrying from the car), a large beach umbrella, and a beach umbrella stand. We tried it out last weekend - it worked great!

Shrimp Fest

Shrimp Fest is finally here! I have been kinda looking forward to go to this event. Local (ha! I called them local! I'm just a tourist here.) said this will draw 200,000 visitors to the Island this year. We are getting ready to go check it out. However, we are taking our beach chairs and the beach umbrella with us, in case we get Way too overwhelmed by all the people. You see, we kind of forget how it's like having all the people around us ;)
Wish Us Luck!

Dinner tonight - Foie Gras with Lymph Nodes?

I finally went back to the gym today! I finally got my strength Back! I think…

It’s been a long break. I can’t believe I have not updated the blog for ONE MONTH. Sorry guys. I see you guys are still visiting regularly. Thank you for being so patient!

As Stakit mentioned, my body have been busy fighting and fighting with all sorts of germs. One of the scares we had for this past month was a bump sticking out from my groin. The bump was almost as big as my hernia that I had on the other side but this time it Hurts! I hate surgery! I don’t like to get cut open! I didn’t want to see a doctor. I didn’t want them to tell me “yes, we should cut you open ASAP!”

Two days later, I went to my doctor and she told me it’s Not another hernia (Oh, thank goodness! What a relief!) It’s just the lymph nodes are really swollen up, I mean Really swollen up. A week prior to that, I went in to see a different doctor (my dr. was out sick) for the 2 symmetrical bumps at the back of my head and he thought that I was Crazy! Back to my appointment, she told me basically they were the same cause, lymph nodes.

I used to be sick ALL the time; well, until I moved to FL (Then until I start working at the preschool). Honestly, my lymph nodes were Never that big before! I could have harvested them and made a meal of out them for dinner! Would that go well with Foie Gras?

I have been taking it easy; been resting A LOT! My lymph nodes are still big but nothing like a couple weeks ago.

Get this song out of my head, Please.....

The fabulous Miss KC-Star has been doing very well at her job. She is starting to get more and more comfortable around all of the kids, and it sounds like their parents have been extremely appreciative of her work. All of the kids love her, and that isn't any exaggeration by any means. KC-Star really likes the job - the only drawback is that she has been getting sick (she had a fever one night, and her lymph nodes have been working OT). The doctor said that in a couple of months, KC-Star should pretty much be immune to most everything. Anyways, KC-Star has managed to get a certain song stuck in my head. It goes something like this (sung to the melody of "My darling Clementine"):

There are seven days
There are seven days
There are seven days in a week
Sunday, Monday
Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday,
Saturday

I've been singing that song to myself on my drive to work.

Bon Voyage to our world travelers!

My sister and brother-in-law were down here for a visit last week. We showed them around Fernandina Beach on Friday, toured Savannah on Saturday, cruised down to Daytona Beach on Sunday, and stopped by St. Augustine on our way back home on Monday. KC-Star and I had never been to Daytona Beach. We were thinking that it was going to be like a NASCAR Oregon Coastal town. It was much bigger than that - it was more like Waikiki, HI. Anyways, KC-Star and I had a really good time, and felt fortunate that we were able to spend some time with them before they began their 2 year trek around the world.

So, a lot has been happening here in Fernandina Beach. A new Japanese restaurant has opened up on the island, and a new Thai restaurant has opened up last week. They are both pretty good. They are building another Starbucks about 5 minutes from our house (that will be TWO in the area).

First week of school/work

I did it!! I am working as a teacher's aide at a locol non-profit preschool. The class that I'm in has all 3-yr-olds and 4-yr-olds. They are a blast. My class has only 10 kids and they are all potty-trained except for one 4-yr-old girl. I'm happy cause I don't have to see ANY "Jingle bells"!

After each work day (and it's not even a "Full work day"), I'm exhausted! They seem to like me and I enjoy them a lot as well. However, I can't believe how many hours of CPE I need to be in childcare. I need to do 40 hours per year. I had taken five hours so far. It does have a lot of great stuff. It has been helpful already!

It’s like Christmas in February

What? It’s March already! Last month we had a lot going on. Here are some highlights of the month. We went to Cindy (Stakit’s sister) and John's wedding in Vegas, Atlanta trip right before that, found a very cool mall in Orlando (and swung by to see Mickey Mouse, visited manatees, and looked at new cars after 'Test Track'), Mom visited Florida for the first time… and Found a job! I know! A Job!

In such a short month, we did quite a bit! The best part is that we attended Cindy and John’s wedding, got to see a lot of relatives, AND spent some time with my mom (not enough though). With all the excitement, I feel like it was Christmas last month! It’s great!

I’ll tell you all about it after I finish some training for my new job. For now… … here are some pictures from the Atlanta trip on Flickr.com. Enjoy!

City fix

Atlanta was our last weekend’s destination since Stakit got a long weekend off. We drove up on Saturday and came back on Monday; it was about 5.5 hrs one-way. We had a great time! We had Great food, saw city people (and they don’t look at us funny, HA!), lucked out with the hotel and its location. We did “normal people” stuff like shopping & dining ;) plus One Full day of tourist stuff!

On the tourist day, we visited CNN headquarters and had the Inside CNN tour (that’s when I realized it’s Chinese New Year that day! Gung Hay Fat Choy!!), walked by Philips Arena, checked out Centennial Olympic Park, Georgia World Congress Center, World of Coca-cola, Underground Atlanta…. In the evening we roved over to Midtown; we walked by Federal Reserve Bank, where they shred $10 million per day. We had a little celebration for the Year of the Pig, dinner at a small Chinese restaurant.

As far as shopping, we went to Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza. I didn’t plan to get anything but... hee hee.

We had a great trip. The drive was well worth it! Atlanta is a Fun place to be. The food was Awesome! We got our city fix!

Our little Group activities on Valentine’s Day

Since we moved, everything is different! Our lifestyle, my personality, how different things excite us that we never thought of, and how we spend our holidays (and including H*llmark holidays).

This Valentine’s Day, I received no truffles, no flowers, no romantic comedies, no romantic CDs, and no spa gift certificates from Stakit! BUT, I’m ok with it, surprisingly. The hardest part is, this heartwarming month, we don’t get to spend time with our heartwarming friends!

This year, we did ballroom dancing. We had our ballroom dancing class with Stakit’s work people. Before we headed to town to dance, we all met at a sushi and grill restaurant on the island for dinner. Dinner was good, I was quiet as I have been lately (yes, I’m know… I just don’t have anything interesting to talk about); however, the dancing was great! We practiced after class last week and we were ready to learn something new. The instructors are very nice. They noticed us from the big class and give us extra “love”. Maybe we dance SO bad that they have to do extra work? Maybe I got confused by ice-dancing? At the end of the class, they told us that we have been doing very well and wanted us to keep up our good work! That was nice! For once, I am not at the bottom of the barrel here. Finally, I’m not the worst!

Dancing

Guess what? We are going to start weekly ballroom dancing! We went to some ballroom dancing classes before we got married… and how well do we dance? Ummm… yeah… you probably have seen us dance. We don’t know what we are doing.

I hope this time will be different. better. It sounds like it will be a lot of fun. However, Stakit should take his steel toe shoes with him to the class.

Wish us luck!

10 Years Together

As of last month Stakit and I have been together for 10 years! When I heard my friends talk about their relationships with their significant others that are 10 + years, I always thought…. WOW! And look, here we are!

Because of the holiday and traveling, we didn’t celebrate our 10 year “anniversary”. As you know, I always like to find an excuse to celebrate. i.e. I have 12 birthdays, my birth-DAY happens to be in every month. Ok, I don’t really celebrate all my 12 birthdays but I love to say it’s my birthday on my birth-Day just for fun.
After the first month we were married, I dragged my new friend at that time (now, one of my bestest friends!) to look for roses for my wedding “monthy-versary”.

So, awhile back, Stakit booked a weekend getaway for last weekend and we went to this hotel for the weekend. We started off with Beach Yoga at this beach followed by a drink with our Yoga teacher. We had a great chat with her. The Beach Yoga was great. It was a warm day, high 70s, yet not too busy at the beach. Some people stopped and looked at us but it was not too bad.

In the evening, we had dinner at their restaurant, one of only six AAA Five Diamond restaurants in Florida. We had a multi-course adventure dinner. They asked us what we don’t like or if we were allergic to anything. Then the chef comes up with a personalized dinner for you. It was fun; every course was a surprise! It was very good and we liked every single selection! However, we were so full; we just rolled back up the stairs after dinner.

The following morning, we walked along the beach and just took it easy. Before we left, we had lunch at their veranda.

Overall, it was a good time. We tried something new and different. It IS 10 year after all!

Happy New Year!

I hope you are enjoying 2007! We certainly have already been!. We so appreciated all the love and support that we got from our friends and family; That visit helped us a great deal! We started to accept this as our home (home for awhile anyway). We are more motivated. More things are getting done around the house. After almost half a year, the new house is starting to feel comfortable now! We can now say we are settling down!

Stakit had his first year-end close for the new division. Everything went mostly smoothly for them. He only had to work late for 3 days. This past week reminded me of when he was working at the CPA firm. He’s just so glad he’s at where he’s now!

When we moved here, we joined the Y and the membership includes health assessment and some personal training. Since we had been out of town a lot, I had not been able to have the assessment done. I finally got it done the last week of 2006. Everything is good but could be better. I went back for a follow-up appointment with the personal trainer and he went through some exercise with me. It was very helpful! I was so excited and worked out a gym schedule for myself. Another bonus, the timing! It happens to be the first week of the year. It gets me even more motivated!

Moreover, I am finally ready to get involved with the community. I talked to a non-profit organization about volunteering. They have a campaign that I can help and this will start in Feb 2007 which is perfect for me. I’m very excited and looking forward to start.

Last but not least, the garage is Ready! We parked BOTH of our cars INSIDE the garage!! Today!

Thank you for reading our blog and
May you have a wonderful 2007!

Good to see you all!

We had our 9 days trip back to the Northwest . This trip went by too quickly. We were able to see most of our friends and family. It was a rush but we’re glad that we had this opportunity. We wish we could have spent some more time together. We really thank you for taking some time from your busy schedule to meet up with us!

We got back yesterday 1 AM. We slept for 8 hours and just took it easy; didn't do laundry; just watched a couple of movies, went to bookstore and got some books for ourselves.

Today everything is back to full swing. Stakit is back to work today and I'm doing all the typical housewife jobs (transparent) which is actually fine since before the trip, I was working for long hours; I didn't do anything around the house. It's about time. We also have contractors coming in pretty much everyday this week. After this week, we won't have contractors for a little while. Maybe I can get back to my gym schedule!

Chrismas lights

Happy Holidays! We really put lights up!

P.S. We hear about the storm in the Northwest. Hope everyone is ok out there!

New friends; new drink

I have been busy working! Yes, you heard me right; I have been working at home. I have a project that needs to be finished before I come back to the NW in a few days. Besides, going to the gym, happy hours with some new friends and a few holiday parties, I have been working on this project, a photo album for a client; this album contains all the memories from birth through middle school, 14 years of memories! Now, I can talk about this because I’m Finally wrapping it up.

It’s great that our social life here is also finally going somewhere. We met some nice people here and started to feel a little better about ourselves and where we are; however, we haven’t gone out for dinner just ourselves for awhile. I know…. not so long ago, we were complaining and complaining…. about being lonely. Please don’t take us wrong; we are still Lonely here; we are just a taaaad better. So, we went out for dinner last night at this restaurant.

We sat at the table that’s right next to one of the 23 tennis courts there, the main court of Bausch & Lomb Championships. In addition to the nice view, we had very good food. This little place where we moved to keeps surprise us. There are uncountable gourmet chefs and restaurants; unnoticeably good service (just restaurants and bars… not the ones that we deal with for the house); very resourceful bartenders! It’s a bit interesting. They do not necessary know the drinks that I used to have but they always suggest something I really like. Last night, they suggested South Beach Martini and boy! that was very good!

Sorry, I didn’t snap a picture for flickr. I guess I have to go back and get another south beach martini. Hee hee, or make one at home…)Ok, I better get back to work.

Christmas tree

Work it! Work it!
Originally uploaded by kc-star.

A year ago, back in the NW. We met up with the Flingers and Jelly Belly at a tree farm to get a Christmas tree. We had a great time! I always enjoy the smell my pine. I don't care how difficult it is to get it into our house; I don't care how much we don't like to re-cut the tree chuck; I don't care how all the pine needles get everywhere... I love a real tree, even it's just a 5 or 6 foot one.

This year I just went to the store and just picked up a little tree and loaded it up with lites just for fun. I'm hoping to get some Pine scented candle but I am not having much luck yet.

Sore

I went to the Pilates class again yesterday and Yoga class right after that. I was exhausted last night! Today, I’m very sore. I went to another yoga class today hope this will help the soreness.

I didn’t forget about my blog. Just that, everyday is like this; hours just fly by and next thing I know the day is over. I’m tired; I am ready for my "milk & cracker, a silk nightgown with rosebuds… you have my permission to withdraw". ;)

Please don’t show me your love

We put up our “HOLIDAY” lights last weekend and I’ve been kinda “fine tuning” them. I got some more Green ones yesterday and this evening, I went outside when the sun set. I know that’s the worst time to go “play” in the yard and wearing low rise capris is not a great idea. But I am on a roll today, getting a lot of things done. I didn’t want to lose the momentum. I went outside to Git-r-Done! (no, I have not see him before)

I just came back inside and guess what I got? I got 3 big mosquito bites on my lower back and a few on my arms and ankles! Gee, I want to be likable and lovable by People! Like human being, not by Mosquito!

I’m icing it now; hope they won’t get any bigger and burn like last year when we were in Kaua’i (but I got 50 or so bites; that was bad!) and hope I can sleep tonight.

Ordered 3 months ago

New stuff for the great room

The stuff that we ordered 3 months ago for the Great room is FINALLY here!!!

I - L o v e - I t !

Covered Lanai

My new office

One of the things we like about this house is the covered patio and the view of all the preserve. We are planning to have the patio enclosed with screen put in to keep the bugs out. We got some quotes but haven’t decided on how we want it yet. Without the screens, I never thought about going outside “work” or hang out. Now that we are not in Love bugs season, I could sit Outside!! Right now it’s 78. I want to enjoy it while I can.