Guess what?

I'm stuck in DFW airport overnight. Why? Cuz I misread my itinerary and missed my first flight, which led to a missed connection to Seattle. What's worse than finding a comfortable sleeping position when pregnant? Finding a comfortable sleeping position on an airport cot when pregnant. Oh, and did I mention that the restaurants and shops closed at 8:30 (which is about 30 minutes BEFORE I knew I was going to be stuck here overnight)? That lovely gem of information is only enhanced by the fact that all the vending machines in the terminal are "CURRENTLY UNDERGOING PROCESSING". I don't know what that means in vending machine-ese, but in real-life, it means that they don't accept currency and don't dispense food or drinks. Good thing I stashed a bag of cookies in my bag. Looks like it will be dinner and breakfast.

I'll be back later in the week to really blog about my vacation. As you hopefully understand, I'm just not in the mood right now.

I'm back!

to the blogosphere, only to leave again in a few days. Hubby and I are heading to warmer climates for a much needed vacation. Do you know that we haven't had a real vacation since our honeymoon in 2006! So, I'm happy to say that on Tuesday, October 21, we will celebrate our second year of marriage in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. Hallelujah.

Speaking of marriages...I want to say a big CONGRATS! to my blog friend Nilsa

who will join the "Married Ladies Club" this coming weekend. And wish a very happy anniversary to my brotha-from-anotha-motha, D who has made the one-year mark with his fantastic wife, Tif.

Ah, love is in the air.

So, here's the deal. I'll go back to old fashioned pen and paper journaling on the cruise, then play catch up with you when I get back.

Wish me bon voyage!

Karla

PS - Did McCain confuse autism with Down's Syndrome, not once, but twice during last night's debate? Or was he trying to make a more global point about special need's education? I vote for the former.

Our weekend camping adventure

Its amazing that we can drive 40 minutes east and be in the mountains. I love that. We took advantage of that fact this weekend and headed to the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie Forest for some camping and hiking. We stayed at the Middle Fork campground, which was excellent (as long as you don't mind lots of kids - all properly wrangled by parents, but very loud). This was Figaro's first camping trip. He had a blast hanging outside with his parents for 2 days.

Saturday, we hiked 5 miles up the Taylor River trail to Otter Falls. The majority of the hike is along the river, so even though the day was hot, the breeze was cool. We had to scramble over several blow-outs and through a couple of wash-outs along the way, but it was a very nice hike. At about 3 miles, we came across a lovely wooden bridge crossing a small cascade. We all took a break to cool off.



About a mile and a half after that, we turned off the trail at a spot marked by cairns (damn, I meant to take a picture of that), scrambled about half a mile up a hill, over and under fallen trees and boulders, then down the other side through scratchy brush about 7 feet tall. Then we were visually assaulted by the beauty of Otter Falls



It's dry season, so the falls were really only a trickle. But enough for people to use them as water slides into Lipsy Lake (what fun!) Figaro swam around with his dad, while I waded thigh deep to take pictures.



We had snacks, then headed back. Figaro's joints were so sore by the time we got back to camp, he climbed in the back of the truck and stayed there til near nightfall - sleeping and watching us hang out at camp.



Early Sunday morning, we were lucky enough to get a beautiful electrical storm off to the west. What a sight with the mountains in the foreground. Another good northwestern weekend!

It's Nice to Meet You Again For The First Time

(Vida, remember that quote?)

Yesterday was the first day of my beginning French class. Now, mind you, I took 4 years of French in high school. Clepped out of the first 2 semesters of college French, then amassed enough French credits for a minor in French. Well, then I moved to Indiana (not exactly known for its diverse culture) and all French-speaking, writing and reading ceased (unless I was cruising the BBC website, or sneaking in on a French conversation class). So, after 6 years in French wasteland + 1.5 more in BF Texas (also no French speakers - imagine that!), I felt like I had maybe lost my skillz.

I recently decided that I wanted to be able to speak 3 languages (take that, American education system!) and figured I might as well start with one I used to know. Well, it turns out, I'm still pretty damned good with French (if I must say so myself) and am well on my way to being GREAT with French.

I do have beef with my teacher, though. Her name is Juliette. And, in addition to having a completely cute name, she weighs about 7 pounds, but has curves in all the right places. She also has a fantastically cute personality, a great sense of humor and happens to be beautiful. Is this a requirement for female french teachers? My high school French teacher had the same characteristics. The French teachers at Purdue also had these characteristics. It isn't fair!

I think I should mention that I am the 3rd youngest person in the class - the other 2 are high school students and really don't count anyway. Do you know how fun it is at the age of 31 to be the youngest person somewhere? Yay! I'm going to love this class.

I'm picking up Arabic in the fall, as long as they don't raise tuition too much. If the Europeans can be fluent in several languages, damnit, so can I!

To hear more hateration, particularly aimed at Europeans, read the next post...

For All You Foodies Out There

I just signed up for a "food swap" with Megan and April. It's a pretty cool idea. You are matched with a fellow foodie in another part of the country (or international, if you like) to swap some home-grown goodies. I'm excited and seriously hoping that someone from Lousiana gets my name. LOL! I signed up for 2 swaps - one with Oklahoma food, and one with Washington State food. Should be pretty cool. I'd love to do swap internationally, but am not willing to pay the exta postage - that's 2 or 3 yoga classes!

Anyhoo, if you're interested, here's the blurb from Megan's website:

If you would like to join us in a local area goodies exchange, send your name, mailing address, e-mail address, and blog name and blog URL to either april at aprilsattic@comcast.net or to me at cookinmeg@gmail.com. Also let us know if you'll send internationally. We will match up partners and have a round up of the participating blogs. We ask that you post about the goodies you receive and include links back to both April and myself. Sign-ups end June 27th.

So, what do you say?

Want to share your *Taste Like Home* with someone?

Here's the link to the Taste Like Home blog.

I think I'll pick up something terrific at Pike Place Market.

I'll keep you updated with what I'm sending.

Have passport, will travel

The study abroad woman was at the Geography Club table in the cafeteria. They are having a fundraiser to take a trip to Mexico, Guatemala and Belize in August. She is there to answer questions about the trip.

Anyhoo, she and I were talking about how much we loved Belize and she said "If you feel at home in Belize, you will feel like you're in heaven in Guatemala." I don't know what that means, so I just said, "Wow! Really?!"

Then she gave me the once-over and said, "I bet you are a great traveler. You must travel all over." I told her if by "all over" she meant all over the Southwest route map, then she was exactly right. We laughed long and hard at that (I made a funny!), then she said, "No, I mean, you are exactly the right height, build and complexion to blend in everywhere. I would love to travel with you. People probably treat you like a native. I bet you get the best price on all your souvenirs."

Wow! Something about that made me feel really good. Like I belong to the whole world. And with all this fighting and bombing and other miscellaneous mayhem, it made me feel really happy to know that maybe the world considers me a person who is not trying to tear it into a thousand little pieces.