Today, Matt and I celebrate our sixth wedding anniversary. I hope it's a good sign that my husband thought it had been just 5 years since we got married.

Happy Anniversary, luv! here's to many many more great years.

We're here. The less that be said about our flight, the better. It could've been worse, I'm sure, but it wasn't easy. But Hawaii? Incredible. Our rental house? Amazing.

Ahh well ... No rain. No rainbows.

It's been an exhausting race to the finish, but we leave for Hawaii tomorrow morning. We are 98% packed. Suitcases have been weighed. Loki is visiting at a friend's house. Our house is relatively clean. And we're all exhausted. And excited, I think, beneath all that exhaustion, anyhow.

We've been promised wi-fi at our accomodations, so hopefully I'll be catchin you on the flipside! Until then ... Aloha!

Break it down, bullet style:
• Has anyone used one of those You Tube clip converters that actually worked??? I am trying to put some Sesame Street clips on my MP3 player for Tabby and am having NO LUCK.
• Got some of those elastic headbands everyone seems to wear these days and I'm quite a fan ... the ball cap gets kind of hot on long runs in the summer.
• I sewed grosgrain ribbon through two of Tabby's binkies tonight. I don't want them rolling around while we're flying.
• I checked out Crafty Mama from the library. It is a really neat read ... possibly even for non-moms.
• My friend asked me to run a race for Congolese women today. Sounds like a good time for a good cause. I'm in!
• There are babies popping up everywhere! I just bought a cute outfit for some friends of ours at Babystyle. LOVE that store.
• Tomorrow is my last full day of work before vacation! Friday I'm working a bit in the morning and then I'm going to spend the rest of the day running errands, doing laundry, packing and playing with Tabby. What? She loves to fold laundry. Honest.
• I've had 80 oz of water today. Is that too much?

I'm going to do it again. I'm going to stay up waaay past my bed time to watch The Olympics. Gymanstics. I love it. Can't get enough. Swimming too. I must be insane.

Dinner tonight came from the garden. Well half of it anyway. We made another mozzarella caprese salad (tomatoes, basil and mozzarella drizzled with balsamic). YUM. Our tomatoes have been pretty prolific, but we've only produced one zucchini. It was a big one (12+ inches long), but, seriously? Who can't grow zucchini.

I've scheduled a Paint Your Own Pottery night for my mom's group in September and I'm getting a pretty good response so far. I haven't done that in years and I'm really looking forward to it. It should be a good time!

I was really psyched with this picture of Loki. He's such a handsome boy, but sometimes his dark coloring makes him a bit hard to photograph, so I love to get a shot of his doggy cuteness.

Ahh, I must fly ... Olympic fever is overcoming me again.

Did this weekend go extra fast or was it just me?? We mostly spent our time watching Olympics, hanging with friends and family, running errands, and doing household chores (gardening, cleaning, organizing).

I've been enjoying the heck out of the Olympics. No matter how you feel about China, this is about the athletes and how hard they've worked to get there and it's been amazing. I love the cool stories (like the 33 year old gymnast who's competing for Germany) and people overcoming the odds (like our men's fine performance in the 4x100 free relay last night - this morning?). I'm so glad I stayed up late to watch it (though I might not have been so happy about it this morning).

This week is set to go by in a blur of packing, to-do lists, and preparations both at work and at home. Tonight we ran an errand for the trip and while we were in a certain neighborhood, we went to this amazing Asian grocery store. It had every type of Asian grocery imaginable and I'm so excited to go back when I have more time to look around and some recipes to make. What a find!

Hope you all had lovely weekends.

I have sat down about 10x the past three days and tried to write something, but I've been failing miserably. I keep getting interrupted. So let's break it down, bullet style:

• Work has been beyond nuts. I worked 10 hours straight today, absolutely no breaks whatsoever, not even for lunch (ate that during a meeting).
• Root canal was yesterday ... the worst part of it was paying the bill ... $900 with another $900 bit to come later when I get my crown. Ugh. But the procedure was pretty easy and I only had to take advil for minor pain for about 12 hours afterwards
• I'm in super-nerd planning mode for our trip ... to do lists, packing lists, etc. etc. We're at PackCon 3 right now, but this weekend I'll hit PackCon 2 and start COLOR CODING
• Matt finally hung the swing that my mother-in-law got for Tabby for her b'day. This is awesome except for now she pesters us all evening with demands of "side" (outside) and "weee!" (what she says while she swings). It's hard to say no, though.
• The 21+ day 90+ degrees streak finally ended and we've had some amazing rain the past two days.
• I seriously thought about going outside and running it was so cool this evening. But did I? Hell no. I have a treadmill inside with a box set of Heroes.
• I am soooo excited for tomorrow and the start of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. What a bummer the Hamms are out ... but I'm still looking forward to gymanstics, swimming and track & field.
• Our CSA share this week contained purple carrots! They're so cool looking.
• Being a CO girl and a Van Gogh fan, I'm pretty sure that if they make this t'shirt, I'm buying it!

Alright ... it is SOOOO bed time.

Well my day has much improved since this morning. Still have to go back to the dentist on Wednesday, but I got to go out to lunch with my coworkers and I've had a very nice evening with Tabby and Matt. Nice and quiet. I need to get in a run before I go to bed (2 hours should come close to burning off all of the yummy calories I've ingested today) and watch an ep or 2 of Heroes.

Thanks to everyone for the nice b'day comments, facebook messages, emails, e'cards, telegrams and carrier pigeons.

Damn, people. I sure know how to par-tay. I kicked off things great this morning with a dentist appointment and got my first b'day present (aside from the free chapsticky-swag and bottle o' amoxycillin) ... I get to go back Wednesday for a ROOT CANAL. I'm psyched.

I'm sure the day will improve, but I'm a bit disillusioned with my 29th year thus far ...

My b'day is tomorrow, so I got to celebrating early. I spent Friday afternoon with Kelly and Tabby ... shopping, the pool, chilling. Matt and Kelly joined us for dinner and a movie in the backyard, Juno!

Saturday was pretty usual: gym, breakfast, errands, etc. My family came over for dinner in the evening. We collaborated on the meal of my choice: fried chicken, corn on the cob, green beans, squash casserole, fruit (we got some amazing peaches) and chocolate peanutbutter refrigerator dessert. Oh ... and mint juleps. Yum. And a great evening besides.

Today's main activity was going to Waterworld, which was ... OK. We got there in the late afternoon since that's when the cheap tickets start. It started raining just as we got there and everything was closed for about 40 minutes while we waited it out. After getting cold, a spill going down a slide and the afternoon wearing on, Tabby wasn't having as good a time as we might've hoped. But I think it will be nice to take her back there at some point.

Now exhaustion is setting in and I am ready to lie around and watch some TV for a while.

What's going on?

• We have tied and will possibly break a 107 year old record here in Denver. 18 days of 90+ temperatures. 99 yesterday. At 7:30 when we were standing outside and the sun had already started dipping below the horizon, we were sweating bullets. I think it's scrambling my brain.
• Little sister finished taking the BAR EXAM yesterday. Unfortunately, she doesn't get her results until like October. That's barbaric.
• I ordered Tabby her own tent to take with us to Hawaii. It folds up into a 15" round which was a big selling point for me, because it will fit in a suitcase whereas te pack and play? will not. Let's just hope she likes it.
• Matt gets back from his biznasss trip today. I like this for many reasons, but I am also glad because now we can resume the watching of the Heroes Season 1 box set.
• I've been working my butt off trying to get back into running after taking 4 wks off for bootcamp. It's been suprisingly easy, probably because I gained lots of muscle in bootcamp. But I've been doing all my running indoors on the treadmill, cuz I do not like heatstroke.
• After each hair-soaking workout, I have been whipping up one of these babies to give me a bit of protein and a LOT of cooldown.
• I mis-sequenced our automatic savings and our mortgage payments with my direct deposit of paycheck and overdrew by $437 yesterday. Oops. Today the account is back in the black. Wonder if they're going to ding me with a fee ...
• The summer Olympics start in about a week! I'm an olympic junkie (though probably not as bad as my sister) and cannot WAIT to spend some QT watching swimming and gymnastics.
• Tabby pooped in the shower on Monday. It caused me to be 20 minutes late for a meeting owing to cleaning her and IT up and I swear ... some of the funk is still lingering, despite many applications of BLEACH. But perhaps it's in my head.

Lovely Marisa, who is getting married like 10 minutes from now (actually, I think it's like 3 days) was kind enough to give me a blogging award.

Thanks! And best wishes for a fab wedding.

I get to pass on the good cheer to other blogs I enjoy:

Yvett, cuz she always makes me laugh, especially while I'm drinking MILK

Ani, cuz she's a sweetie and makes yummy things to eat

Kristi, cuz she's always got something interesting to say

Lisanne, cuz she takes beautiful photos and sees lots of good in the world

Shannon, cuz she cracks me up with her goofiness and her kid is an absolute stitch

Chas, cuz she always has an interesting story

Wil Wheaton, cuz he's a fine piece of nerd man

Anyhoo ... Lisanne shamed me (though she had no such intention) into posting a new round of links. I have come across some really good ones that I should definitely share, so it was high time. But the linky posts, they consume LOADS of time to write and time is one thing I have had very little of. Without further adieu:

KIDDOS
• Love this room I saw on Ohdeedoh, especially that book rack! I am so having Matt make one of those for Tabby when she gets a big girl room in the not-as-distant-as-I'd-like future.
• I also thought this idea for a house/kid's room/whatever was really interesting.
• Love this art centerpiece!
• Clean the kids. Clean the bikes. In your DIY Kid Wash!
• Mysterio T'shirts predict the new baby's future.
• Another blog to love: Simple mom! Filled with good tips for kids and organization.
• Parenting techniques for raising independent, thoughtful and kind children - sign me up!
• I totally dig this rolltop chair
• things to do outdoors with your kiddos - a great list

COOKING
• these cookie chip chocolates look really intersting ... chips of cookie inside melted chocolate
• microwave chocolate cake for one
• how about french toast kabobs for breakfast?? sounds good to me
• make pickles in under 3 hours
• good for a warm night: avocado soup!
• baked peaches with amaretti stuffing
• no-guilt cocktails
• cream cheese stuffed cupcakes
• gotta try this "fast dinner": thai chicken with basil
• use up those CSA veggies: summer squash and potato torte
• butterfinger cake?? sign me up!
• bring on the coolwhip! no-bake desserts for summer
• gotta love how this zebra cake looks