What Time Is It Again?

After a horrifyingly sleepless night on Sunday (and subsequently exhausting day back at work on Monday), I got home from work and pretty much crashed on the couch. I was passed out by 6:00 PM. I woke up long enough to eat a PB&J sandwich John fixed for me and took some sleeping pills to ensure I didn't keep waking up every hour. It seemed to work! Although I was still wide awake at 4-something.

Tuesday at work was much better since I was better rested. I actually stayed up long enough to catch the beginning of the Maryland / Florida State game. Of course, I was awake again by 3:30 AM and decided to upload some more pictures and do a little blogging.

Day 3 of our Adventure was mostly riding in the van and stopping off at various landmark temples on our way up to Chiang Mai. Enjoy!

So Sleepy

The worst part about going someplace with a 12 hour time difference from your norm is the jet lag. And boy, do I have it! I went to bed at 8:00 PM, after forcing myself to stay awake and watch "13 Going on 30" on tv last night. I woke up around 11:30, then around 1:30 and for the most part, stayed awake. I think I may have drifted off for about 15 minutes at 3:30. I got to work early today and have less than 2 hours to go. I can't wait to get home and sneak in a nap before dinner.

During my lunch hour, I went to the drugstore bought some "Simply Sleep", which is Tylenol PM without the pain reliever. Hopefully, this will help me get more than 3 hours of sleep tonight!

Over the weekend, I got caught up on all my TiVo'd shows. I think it was the sleeplessness in the wee Saturday morning hours when I caught up on "Ugly Betty". What a great show! I love it's campiness. Reminds me of the short-lived show "Popular". And in the wee Sunday morning hours, I caught up on 3 episodes of "Smallville". I wasn't crazy about the episode where Clark gets possessed by a phantom and is trying to figure out why he's in a mental institution but the episode from the week before was awesome. Hot guys saving the world. What's not to like?

I'm not sure anyone is even into Smallville anymore. Heck, if it weren't for TiVo, I probably wouldn't think to watch it on my own. But I'm glad I do. It's a good escape, no matter how outlandish some of the story lines can be.

While in Thailand, I saw an episode of "Lost" dubbed in Thai. I never watched that show here, so seeing a random episode (in Thai, no less) didn't really get me thinking I ought to check out the first season and do a "Lost" marathon. I've heard all kinds of good things about the show... maybe I'll catch up when it's in syndication on some cable channel. That's what I'm doing with CSI. I never watched the original, but somehow got into watching the Miami version. John and I like how David Caruso likes to repeat a key point he wants to make. Pretty funny.

OK... back to work. I wish my ride home was shorter than it is. I really need a nap!

So Good To Be Home!

It was an exhausting trip, for sure, and even more exhausting trying to re-adjust to a 12 hour time difference. I posted some pics of our first two days so far with more pics and details of our trip to come...

It was so awesome to hang out at the Corner Pub with everyone last night. Sadly, by 10:00 PM, we were crashing hard. And this is after a nap prior to heading out! John woke up today at 3:00 AM and has been watching recorded Barrett-Jackson car auctions ever since. He just informed me the highest selling car so far was a Shelby for $5 million, belonging to Shelby himself (or something like that).

If you have trouble accessing the pics, let me know!

Final Vacation Day

Well, it's been a very busy and tiring two weeks. I tried to blog last week from the north, but the hotel internet connection (supposedly a DSL!) was very slow. Slower than the dial-up I'm on right now! I wanted to blog and show pics during our journey, but we didn't really have the time (or energy!) at the end of the day. Next time we visit Thailand, you can be sure we'll be spending more days lounging about and fewer days trying to cram in so many historical landmarks.

John finally got to eat some pizza (and KFC), so he's doing much better. Today is a "free" day and we're heading out shortly to do some shopping.

We miss you all!!! Can't wait to get home!

Two Days and Counting

I had no trouble falling asleep at 9:30 last night, even after having a cup of coffee at dinner. I did, however, wake up at 1:00 AM and wasn't able to get back to sleep until after 3:00 AM. Was it the coffee taking affect hours later??? Maybe I'm gearing up for the 12 hour time difference we'll be experiencing at the end of the week!

When I finally fell asleep again, I had a dream that Pam Anderson was trying to take John away from me (or something like that). I really should have written down the details when I woke up 'cuz now I can't remember what it was about. Just that it was weird!

I didn't get any packing done, but we did get a good deal on chinos at J. Crew yesterday. All their sale stuff was an extra 25% off, so we each got a new pants for $15. Love. A. Good. Deal.

There's this chick here at work whose cell phone ring tone is a country song of some sort. And she's gotten at least 6 calls within the past half hour. I don't know what song it is, but it's rather annoying. Not the catchy tune I have as my ring tone - Wham's "Everything She Wants". I had the Beach Boys' "Wouldn't It Be Nice" as my general one, but now it only plays when certain people call. And when John calls, I hear the Simpsons' theme.

Other than some shopping (and John being on-call Saturday), we went to Union Jacks in Bethesda to watch the Eagles/Giants game with the gang. It's a really nice place. Spacious, not crowded, pretty good food (from the bit I sampled) and lots of flat panel TV's. Could this place be the new Jed's? Enough rambling for today...

Vacay Preview

On this very dreary, rainy Friday, I share a preview of what John and I will be seeing in the coming weeks:



Sukhothai is full of beautiful ruins. It was the capital of an old Thai kingdom. I'm also looking forward to going to the Grand Palace again:


No plans for this weekend, except to clean the house, put away (throw out!) the tree, lots of laundry and pack for our trip. Maybe some playoff games too. Have a great weekend, everyone!

A New Year's Eve Wedding

Although it was a rainy night in Aquia, VA, the wedding of Heather and Ackra (the son of a very close family friend) went off without any issues (that we could tell). It was a long drive down to the wedding venue and I was a little tired. The ceremony started with your typical ceremony with some type of reverand/pastor. After the vows, they had a Thai blessing ceremony (like John and I had) where all the elder guests (those older than the bride and groom) come up and offer blessings and well wishes while pouring holy water in the hands of the bride and groom. After this portion of the wedding, they continued on with the remainder of the wedding. Here's the bride and groom:

The reception was fun, even though we only knew a few people. It's tough enough to attend a wedding when you only know the family friends, but tougher when you don't really know the bride and groom's friends. I was my dad's Johnny Walker on the Rocks runner and brought him coffee later. I think the bartender thought I was a hard-time drinker.

Being a New Year's Eve themed wedding, there were all kinds of party hats and favors. Johnny tries on one of the spiffy hats:




Of course, I can't let you get away without seeing the CAKE! Very pink, no? A very cool thing they had was the candy station. Little organza bags were provided to be filled with jelly beans, M&M's, kisses, and other pink and silver confections.


Oh, and there was licorice. Black was the other wedding color. I'm not a fan of licorice or anise, so none went into my bag. Wedding favors also included a mini bottle of champagne (or sparkling cider) and silk elephant keychains from Thailand.

Speaking of Thailand, a week from tomorrow, John and I will be headed off to visit relatives and see the King. It hasn't sunk in yet that we'll be traveling so far (and so long! 24 hours in the airport system!). But exciting, none the less.

Hope everyone had a fun (and safe) New Year's! I hear there were fun times at Joey & Michelle's. And Edgar Pedgar had his annual bash as well. Maybe you'll share the photos with me so I can see what I missed out.

A Message From Little Susie...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!