I was thinking about curve balls and other things......

Well on Friday I was so keen on blogging here that I started to write the post in my head. It was about life throwing me another curve ball. But as usual before I can even put thoughts in paper or in this case in my draft folder, life righted itself and curve ball wasn't thrown at all. Again, it's just me reacting first before thinking. Heavens! When will I learn to read everything first before reacting violently and panicking for no reason.

If you want to know this is what happened. We are on the process of planning for our trip in the fall. We are actually doing 2 cruises, yes I know too much noh? The thing is though when you go to Europe it seems a waste to just stay there for a week, after all you paid that much for the plane fare and traveled all that way just to stay for a week? Or in this case cruise for a week?

The planning for a cruise involves mostly excursions or day trips during port days. This was what I was planning on doing, getting really serious about research and all. And THEN all of a sudden I looked up the dates of our second cruise and voila, I couldn't find the cruise anymore? Instead there is one for the cruise ship but with a different cruise date. Major panic button pressed and bells started to ring in my head.

By the time I had the hubby know of my concern, he said I must be mistaken because well, I'm always mistaken. I don't read everything well, I always skip paragraphs when I read, etc etc.

Turned out the husband was right, as usual I was wrong. Well, I was so relieved to find that I was wrong. Now back to normal programming of research and such.

Also this summer we have finally gotten the time and courage to enroll in swimming lesson at the local swim center. Aside from the husband there are two friends of ours who joined us to learn swimming. There were more people interested in getting lessons when we were talking about it, but in the end there are just the four of us. It comes as no surprise that of the four I am the one that is lagging in progress. I still have to master my courage and curb my fear. I'll get there. I told the college-aged instructor that my goal is to learn how to float and to kick. Simple right? Then my husband told him that it would be the instructor's major achievement if he can teach me how to swim. Yes, I admit I find it really really tough. One more week of lessons to go.

In addition to all these things, last weekend we had our church camping at Samuel P. Taylor State Park at the Madrone Group Campsite. Despite my apprehension of not enjoying it, I did. After all I like everyone who came to camp with us; they're my church family. Someone from church loaned us her bigger tent so there was plenty of room for the two of us, except that we were sleeping the wrong direction and I was rolling off to my side. Also by the second night the air mattress was losing air :)

Summer is nearly at its end but the weather around here is starting to get hot. OMG hot! I cannot stand heat. And by the way we had humidity here, not too much now, but last week I believe it was. Another thing I cannot stand.

Since I'm writing, yesterday to beat the heat we decided to watch a movie when it was the hottest time. We went to see Mark Wahlberg (love him)in the new Transformers movie. How can he be playing a dad to a 17-year-old hottie, he's far too young. Plus, how come he has no love interest in this movie?

Oh I spent today (Sunday) bingeing on tv via ON DEMAND. I've seen the first 3 episodes of the Halle Berry starrer EXTANT, really interesting and good casting. Also in my menu for today was THE STRAIN, watched 2 episodes. I was very interested in both shows which only mean that I am a big sci-fi nerdie now :)

Okay I think this is all for now. This blog is like an old friend that I wanted to share things/activities with.

6-month Review

A 6-month look back is not something I've done in the past. At least I don't think so, or don't remember. But I'm compelled to do one this time because I have had an unproductive blogging record here the first half of the year. Perhaps doing a recap or review would compensate for the lack of regular posts lately.

So the first half of the year went this way:

A Vegas road trip in January was what the doctor ordered. The long road trip was enjoyable for the most part, where I indulged in wool gathering while soaking up all the roadside sights. However, it was very long and eventually at some point I got bored and just wanted to get there. While in Vegas, we took day trips to Zion and Valley of Fire SP. All in all, it was an enjoyable break from the daily routine.

Got the scare of my life when my wallet went missing and I scampered to replace all the credit cards and driver's license, only to find the missing wallet in my car a few days later. The same car that was thoroughly searched, not once or twice, but four times.

Baby sat our friends' kids overnight as our gift for their wedding anniversary. The younger kid was so excited because we have the video game he liked and he's enamored with my cats, especially Buster who he kept begging the cat sleep with him.

I won a Coach bag from a blogger that I read religiously. The blog is based in the Philippines. It is my first brand name bag and probably the last.

Hosted bbq for friends on two different occasions.

For our 7th wedding anniversary we took a road trip to Lake Tahoe, Yosemite and on our day 3 we stayed at our friend's cabin near Yosemite, in Groveland.

Had a house guest from Bangladesh. He's visiting here in the USA with his group, they are stage actors and their theater group was invited (with 13 other countries) to a conference in Tampa. He invited us to see his play, but it would be cost prohibitive for both the hubs and I to travel so we asked if he had time to come stay with us for a few days. Luckily he had so we took him to do a lot of touristy things in San Fran and Monterey. I like being a tourist guide.

That's how my first half went. Although sadly I've done a lot of procrastination during this period. Likewise there's too many things going on that bogs me down, probably why I was unable to blog here too, because this blog make me write about my life unlike this blog where I only recount my trips and day trips or this blog where I write about my cats.

Looking ahead I hope that I'll be able to blog more. In addition, I have a big trip coming up in the fall that will tie me up in research about places to see, food to try, souvenirs to buy.