happy to meet you

Today, Ian and I are headed to Catawba Island, Ohio, where we met Memorial Day weekend 5 years ago.

If you want to know where that is, you can check out a map here (halfway through the post).

I don't have any pictures from the weekend we met (pre-smart phone days), but here are a few from one of our first dates in June 2007. such youngins

One of our first dates in Pittsburgh @ a Pittsburgh Pirates Game.

Pittsburgh sure is a beautiful city.

And, if you are curious about how Ian and I met, you can find that story here on our wedding website (that I should probably take down one of these days. But, I don't want to! I still can't believe the wedding I planned for a year and half happened nine months ago. crazy.).

Ian is telling me that because we are married now, we don't get to officially celebrate the anniversary of the weekend we met anymore. That's a load of crap, Ian. 

After some negotiation, Ian told me that we could celebrate by going out to dinner, but no presents. That is fine with me!

(That must mean I am getting something super nice on our one year wedding anniversary, right? :)

I'm thankful for meeting Ian everyday. But, Memorial Day weekend every year I am reminded:

how wonderful life's surprises can be. 

how life works in ways we don't always understand at first.

how everything happens for a reason.

The long weekend is also a great reminder that summer is here. However, we often forget that Memorial Day was created to commemorate fallen soldiers who lost their lives to keep us safe. For families of those soldiers, Memorial Day is not about summer, it's about celebrating the lives of their dearest loved ones.

Take a moment on Monday to be thankful for the people that bravely defended our country (and continue to keep us safe) so that we can live our lives freely. Also, take a moment to remember your loved ones who have passed, that kept you safe in their love. 


And if you want, you can think about how awesome it was that Ian and I met 5 years ago. :)

XO

call me crazy

or not!

After recent conversations with my father regarding my my "birth place confusion" mentioned here, I have decided that I must not be as crazy as I thought. I am completely and totally not responsible for lying to people about my birth place.

My parents are directly responsible. Let me explain...

I have been deeply confused about my birth place my entire life. I was told, or I heard my parents telling other people, that I was born in Savannah, Georgia. Made sense to me! A namesake.

At some point in my life, probably around the age of 14 or 16, I saw my birth certificate said I was born in Fort Stewert, GA. Then again in 2001, I was filling out a passport renewal application and had to put Fort Stewert, GA as my birth place...(even though I could have sworn I was born in Savannah, GA, right?)

I decided to continue telling people my birthplace was Savannah when asked (or when flirting with international studs).

To make this even more confusing, sometimes when my parents would talk about our years living in Georgia, they would talk about Hinesville, GA. I was an adolescent and decided not to ask questions. I just remained confused.

In 2009, as Ian and I were driving down to Florida from Pittsburgh, we passed signs for Savannah and Fort Stewert pointing in different directions. I also saw a sign for Hinesville along the way, and that got me thinking...


That's weird. Maybe I was born on a fort in Savannah? Wait, Hinesville?... that sounds familiar too. 


I was way too focused on getting to Florida (starting my vacation, and being annoyed by the $250 speeding ticket we got hours later) to figure out why all these locations circling around my birth place didn't make sense. (I didn't have a smartphone to check Google Maps. And nope, no paper map to look at either. We were navigating our way to Florida with written out directions from MapQuest and a Garmin.)

This year I had to renew my passport again, so my confusion was renewed as well. I listed my birth place as Fort Stewert, GA and I moved on..... until I wrote about my "birth place confusion" in my blog post in March.

After I wrote that post, my father called me to clear up this issue. He (laughed) and told me that he used to tell people that my birthplace was Savannah because it was close enough to Fort Stewert and it wouldn't require further explanation. No one would know where Fort Stewert was located. But, most people have heard of Savannah.

However, during this conversation with my dad, he also kept mentioning Hinesville and Fort Stewart, interchanging them, as if they were the same place. I left this conversation with a some clarity, but I was still a little confused.

So, I did what I always do when I need more clarity. I Googled it.

Fort Stewert, GA and Hinesville, GA are essentially the same place.

Next, I went to Google Maps to get the whole picture.

As you can see, Fort Stewert, the red pointer on the map, is in Hinesville.

Hinesville is a hop, skip and a jump from Savannah.

Thank you Dad and thank you Google for the clarity. I probably should have looked more carefully at a map of Georgia at some point in my life before now. But, I can rest easy that my three birth locations are close enough that maybe you could say that the big lie was just a white lie? 

However, Dad... I didn't need to know even though I wasn't actually born in Savannah, that I was conceived there. Still a namesake :(

XO

art affair

It's that time of year, and I love it.

Art (af)fairs mark my favorite time of year. There is nothing better than walking around with a lemon shakeup no-sugar-added mango iced tea admiring wonderful works of art, and the passionate people that spend their life creating beautiful things. I am envious of them.

One of these days I will find my perfect craft... (as soon as I commit to a medium beyond spray paint.)

A couple weekends ago, Ian and I walked down the block to the Defiance Lilac Festival. I must have been feeling a little artsy fartsy, when I saw this lovely mosaic on a building that I never noticed before.

The Lilac festival had fair food, live music, and local businesses updated their store fronts and expanded them to the sidewalks for the event. We finally had a chance to browse some the shops we hadn't been to in a while, including the new "affliction/gangster" clothing store. (I'm actually very curious to see how long it stays open. Best of luck to them! That store space has been a revolving door.)

We ran into a few of Ian's cousins (why am I still surprised by this phenomenon of a small town?) and perused the crafty booths of local artists. Most of the booths seemed to be children's accessories and sewing crafts. Although wonderful, Ian and I gravitated to what we love best. food.

We spent our allowance on dip mix and bread. What do these have in common?

spicy. yum.

This past weekend I went to the Broadripple Art Fair in Indianapolis with my mom, Sydney (sister), Uncle Bob and Brooke (my second cousin). In comparison to the Lilac Festival it was like Veuve Clicquot vs. Miller Lite (sorry Defi).

It was a bit toasty out, and a lot of walking (after running a 5k with no training... and for some reason we parked .6 miles away?), but the music was great and the artists were incredible.

Most of the art was a little pricey for my budget, but I was inspired by a few things that I might try to make one of these days... like a skirt made out of old t-shirts, modern birdhouses and good ol' fashion acrylic paint on canvas.

I ended up picking up this neat vase for $25. The stems stay up because of little metal spikes at the bottom of the vase.

The Indiana Historical Society had a booth with some great deals! In order to bring a little of home with me back to Ohio, I picked up this coffee table book for $8...

My last pick was also from the Indiana Historical Society. As HomeGoods properly labeled me here, I have a great appreciation for history and pretty much anything vintage or vintage-inspired. I found this $9 book of postcards collected (and reproduced) by the Indiana Historical Society.

In the book are postcards for each season. Here are just a few...

I'm in no hurry to acquire holiday decorations for my home. I am taking it slow (because based on my family's collections, I'm sure my Christmas decor will sneak up on me and throw up on fill my house some day).  However, these are adorable and I have a decorative gold frame leftover from my wedding decor that would fit this postcard size perfectly. Each season, I can replace with the appropriate holiday postcard. I'm pretty excited because it will take up little storage space, and these are right up my vintage alley.

Also, there are a few birthday and greeting cards that I can send to friends and family. Bonus.

Here are some more photos from the Broadripple Art Fair below. My next art (af)fair is Art in the Park in Defiance at the end of June!

Get Inspired! XO

Sydney's beautiful painting! hippie at heart. 

Visited Aunt Robin at the Great Frame Up tent.

Miss creative getting her creative "on" again.

PS. Why can't there be a "make your own art" section for adults? Not fair. 

facelift

No, I'm not getting one yet. But, my blog got one!

It got personalized. or to be more technical... savannalized.

My new favorite part is that my only good friend, Piper (my our yorkie), has made a permanent appearance in two places.

I really should add a photo of my husband, shouldn't I? He must be too busy to participate in this new blogging adventure. Yea, he is being responsible and watering our plants right now.

Other blog facelift details to note are: my iPhone, my favorite lip balm, a fedora hat (because hats are my professional life as explained here), my lunch bag and my keys (that accompany me 100 miles day). Oh, and my two favorite colors, right now, dusty purple and fuchsia.
If it's too much pink and purple for you, hover over a link and it will turn lime green! delicious.

Also, you might notice the new image on the right, below my profile titled Instagrid.

If you haven't downloaded an Instagram* application on your phone, you can still see the photos I upload to Instagram by clicking on the photo on the right side of the screen titled Instagrid. It's basically a grid of the photos I uploaded to Instagram.  You don't need to sign up. Just click and enjoy more of crazy me.

*Instagram: it's like twitter but focuses less on the text... and more on capturing moments with photos. And you can add neat photo filters to pretend you are a professional photographer, but not really.

Oh, I also moved the blog archive to the bottom right.  Above the blog archive are old posts with a photo and the title in case you want to catch up on some more of my word vomit wisdom.

I'm still trying to find a focus in my blogging content, but really who are we kidding? In the meantime...while I'm finding the best-blogger-me, I might be tweaking more things like adding a search bar, changing my tagline, or changing my Instagrid photo. Thanks for your patience on this hot mess of a blog!

sweet soapboxin'! XO

Lady unlucky

It may appear from my blogging thus far that I have my $*!% together. (Or, maybe you think I should live in a padded room?)

But, I have bad days too. There are days when my cute little dog misbehaves. When my house betrays me at the worst possible timing (like when I had to replace my refrigerator and dishwasher the week of my wedding). Or when rare proud baking moments turn into disasters (like when I made brownies for a get together and someone found a piece of my hair in a brownie).


What is worse then a day like that?
Two weeks of that. 


(this post should really be multiple posts, but I'm going to cram as much negative as possible into the digital world all at once, so we can move on. I'm hoping that the internet can take it far, far away away from here :)

I guess I should have suspected that after 10 days of sun and fun, that real life would come down on me like a hail storm.

It's a terrible thing when you feel like Lady Luck is laughing at you for days from her four leaf clover shaped castle.

When Ian and I got back from vacation, after a terrible trip home on Sunday, we had to jump into Monday exhausted and irritated.

My wonderful brother, Sean, drove Piper, our yorkie, to us half way from Indianapolis (where she was staying with my family). Ian met Sean near Fort Wayne on that Monday evening and we got our little fur baby back. It was joyful.

Except when we got Piper back, probably due to confusion and anxiety, she took leaps and bounds backwards on potty training and she was peeing in her bed every night.

why does she have to be so cute?

Piper also has decided that she likes to eat grass now. So, when we go outside to go to the bathroom, apparently it's snack time.

please just go to the bathroom.

This week Piper started chewing on our dining room table again. We had this issue with her when she was a baby, and we took care of it by spraying bitter apple spray on the table legs.  Most of Piper's adult teeth are in and we thought she was done with this stage of her life. I was cleaning up after dinner one night and noticed some new chew marks. annoyed.

frick frack

I'm still not done venting (no pun intended....keep reading).

I don't really like surprises, good or bad. Being a planner and a perfectionist, surprises don't have a home here. Especially, when it is combined with Piper being a poop.

One morning before work last week, I took Piper's bed upstairs to the laundry room because she had an accident. As I approached the laundry room, I heard something I have never heard before in my house...in any house. Screeching and muffled movements of something. 


is something in here? HOW did something get in here? is there a wild beast in the dryer?


I bravely checked in the dryer. nothing. Then I checked behind the dryer. Ah, there is a wild beast trying to claw it's way out of our dryer tubing. Wait, WHAT!?!?! I screamed for Ian. He got out of bed and he calmly and intelligently suggested that there might be a bird in our dryer tubing, not a wild beast. (Our laundry room is on the second floor.)


Me: "Who can we call this early?!?!? Ian! Who can we call???? Ian, why aren't you saying anything. Can we call that guy that fixed our dishwasher and shower? Oh! I know! what about your dad????? (They live on a farm and deal with animals all the time.)
Ian: "My dad is already on his way to work (40 min. away)."
Me: "Do birds have diseases? Will it hurt us? Wait, let me grab some rubber gloves and a shoe box!"

By the time we got our supplies and unhooked the dryer tubing, the bird had already found it's way back out of the house. thank goodness. 

We realized that during our vacation, the beast bird family had built a nest in our dryer tubing. With further inspection, we also found that lint had caused our dryer vent to get stuck open, which allowed access for the birds. (go check yours!)

We had to replace our dryer tubing because the bird had ripped it. Also, we replaced the vent with one below that has a screen to prevent this from happening in the future.

new dryer vent

thanks honey!

I wish I could tell you "that's all folks." no such luck. These next few points will help you to understand the extent of my stress during this time:

- I had a very dirty house that I had to clean. Piper peeing everywhere was not helping. (I typically clean on the weekends, and I was gone 4 weekends in a row because of vacation, an unplanned weekend in Indy and a planned weekend in Indy to drop Piper off and my dad's birthday.)

- Laundry was out of control because our dryer was out of commission (until we had time to get the tubing, vent and fix it).

- We were/are dog sitting for a family member. She came over the morning of the bird in the dryer fiasco. (don't get me wrong, we love dog sitting! It just took a few days for Piper and her friend to warm up to each other. Also, our little guest wouldn't eat for 24 hours, so we were a little worried. Everything is fine now, and we think she is helping with potty training Piper.)

- Our side door lock stopped working, so we had to replace it.

- This was all in addition to a couple of challenging weeks professionally.

As events unfolded over the last couple weeks, I could count on Ian for advice such as, "It could be worse Savanna, you could be in the ground." How morbid. 

I have had to really dig deep for some perspective. Savanna...be thankful you have a dog, a husband who can calm you down, a house and a job. 

And yesterday (friday), just as I was SO ready to say goodbye to another crappy week, and hello to a hopefully relaxing and enjoyable weekend...Lady Luck had different plans.

Last night I had planned to bake two dozen cupcakes that needed to be dropped off at church in the morning for a bake sale. Ian had plans with his brother, so I rented a girly movie. Also, my mother-in-law was going to come by later to use my oven to bake her cookies (for the same bake sale, because her house is under construction).

What a nice way to end a crappy week...bake for a good cause! I sipped my wine. I mixed my ingredients. I poured the mix into the baking cups. I preheated the oven.

Billows of smoke started pouring out the oven. crap. I forgot Ian had told me he spilled garlic butter in there one day this week (and didn't clean it up). I turned the oven off and removed what I thought was the  problem out of the bottom of the oven.

I turned the oven back on and billows of smoke continued to come out of the oven.

At this point my house is full of smoke. I turned off the oven. seriously? seriously.

Oh, it can self clean. Yes, I'll try that! It was 7:30pm at this point and Ian's mom was coming over in a half hour. I turned on the self-cleaning process and it looked like it's only going to take 3 minutes. perfect. 

10 minutes later....Why is my oven still cleaning itself. Oh, no! Was it 3 HOURS????

I called Ian's mom and she confirmed my oven would be out of commission until 11pm. I screwed up her night and mine. She didn't end up coming over. I didn't watch my movie. I called it a night.

I woke up early and baked my cupcakes. I only have a one pan, so when the first dozen were baked, I went to pour the second dozen and I ran out of mix on cupcake # 22. I failed at baking 2 dozen cupcakes for church. 

You know what LADY unLUCKy. Go you know what yourself. I am going to have a great rest of the weekend, and next week is going to be fabulous. and the next. and the next....

Update: I wrote most of this post this morning. Ian and I have had a great afternoon finishing up some landscaping we started last Saturday. Last Saturday wasn't too bad either. (There was just a lot of crappy days before and in between.) I will share some photos of both projects soon. It's going to be WAY positive because nothing else can possibly go wrong (knock on wood).

Better luck to you! XO

Vacay 2012 Part 4: The things cougars say

Here comes part 4, the finale! I hate to end reminiscing on such a lovely vacation, but it's been drawn out long enough. Welcome to hit on Ian dinner time.

Ian and I love a good meal. Especially, when it's being served to us... with wine.

On the cruise, we looked forward to dressing up and going to the formal dinners, at first.

We had the same assigned table for every formal dinner and we had the sweetest waiters that served us each night. We got to know them very well, and they would do table tricks and fun napkin folds for us. (Like make binoculars. I made Ian pose like this. Please don't think he is enjoying this, or thought of this himself.)

The food was tasty and our waiters would let us order two appetizers, two desserts or an extra entree to share if we wanted. Awesome!

We sat at a table of 8. On the first night everyone showed up...

1. Ian and I

2. A young couple from the Tampa area. They were on their honeymoon.

3. A couple from Hong Kong. They were in America for a couple weeks on vacation.

4. Two nice ladies that go on cruises together a lot. They are from Wisconsin and one of the ladies, who earned the name Cougar, has her own real estate company. Her friend works for her. They said they have been going on cruises together for years (together, or with other friends, or with significant others). They go on 2-3 cruises a year. (must be nice!) 

This was Cougar's first cruise since her divorce after 40 years of marriage. She was in a pretty good mood considering the circumstances...like on the prowl...

Dinner day 1: Cougar and her friend were super helpful with cruise, food and casino tips. They were the experts, and we loved all the information they were giving us. They told us about Wisconsin, their jobs, family, ect. Towards the end of dinner, Ian got up to go to the restroom and Cougar, noticing the obvious, stated thaIan was very tall.


Yes, he is as tall as our cruise cabin was wide.

Then Cougar asked me...


Cougar: "Is Ian a model or did he play basketball?"
Me: "Yea Ian played basketball in college. But, no he is not a model." smile.


When Ian returned to the table Cougar continued to Ian...


Cougar: "You are very handsome, you know?"
Cougar's friend: "Yes, you are."
Cougar: "Have you considered going into modeling?"
Ian: "Thanks, not really."


Very nice. We moved on and went our separate ways after dinner.

Dinner day 2: Two of the couples didn't show up for dinner, so it was just Cougar, her friend, Ian and I at our 8 person table. Dinner began with us all recapping the night before and day 2 activities. Cougar's friend had won over $200 on the slot machines. lucky duck.

Cougar's friend: (knowing from previous conversation that Ian is not a model) "I swear I saw your photo in one of the cruise shop windows. Well, it looked exactly like you. It was an ad for something."
Me: "You mean the cologne advertisement with Matthew Mcconaughey?" (One of the only advertisements in the cruise shop windows.)
Cougar's friend: "Oh, hehe, yea that was probably the one. You look just like him."
Cougar: "You just have great hair... and you are just SO good looking. You should really get into modeling."

Somehow we managed to get through this conversation and the awkwardness of what now was clearly these two women hitting on Ian. 


(Chopped liver over here was just trying to keep the conversation moving...away from MY husband. All I could count on from Ian was shy smiles and awkward laughs. Oh, Ian.) 

Look! Cougar on the loose!

Dinner day 3: Cougar and her friend did not come to formal dinner because they went on a long excursion in Cozumel. Phew. We did end up running into them at the casino that night where I could brag that I won $60 on the slot machine for MY man... batches. cha ching!

Dinner day 4: It was just the four of us again. We began the evening with the same old conversations recapping our day, and dinner was looking pretty calm. I got a compliment from the waiter on my dress (chopped liver, no more!). Then Cougar got her camera out and asked to snap a picture of Ian and I. sure.


Then Cougar proceeded to steal a quick photo of just Ian. what!!!! 

At some point during the meal Cougar mentioned Ian's good looks again.


I went with it...

Me: "Yea, geez, I better find an agency when I get home. ha. ha." fake smile. (OK lady we, get it!)


To conclude our meal, a waiter came around with adult dessert shots.

Someone: "What kind of shot is that?"
Waiter: "It is bailey's and amaretto almond liquor."
Someone else: "What kind?"
Waiter: "It's a XXX (really bad name for a shot. something intimate.)
Everyone: "Oh, haha."
Cougar: "Ian, I bet you want one of those!"

(ahhhh....excuse me!?!?!?! The next few seconds after this comment are very blurry to me and Ian.)


During the aftermath of chaos (in my head...breathe, breathe, breathe, Savanna. Come back from the dark place you are going and put your fork down.) I'm pretty sure Cougar said something else along the lines of "...what I would do to you."

Ian and I talked about this after dinner...and again later and that is what we both think we heard. But, maybe she said something else, and we both "heard" the most horrific thing possible?

Luckily, dinner was over and this was the last time we would EVER see Cougar and her friend.

the end...of Cougar.

I wouldn't say I was jealous. It was more like...severely annoyed. I know Ian loves me. He tells me all the time, and always has the right thing to say in the right moment. (Me on the other hand ... I'm better at writing my feelings.) Ian gave a toast to us (me, not Cougar) on our first cruise evening, "Cheers to a long marriage, good times and never ending love." Aw! So sweet!


On that note, you get one last glimpse into our honeymoon (this year).

happy honeymoon! XO

Not a bad view at breakfast! (Don't judge my breakfast [on left] fit for a teenage boy.)

Center of the ship. Beautious.

I'm not quite sure why it says Nassau?

num. num. num.

hi!

Piano bar. What's up with all the Travelocity gnomes? Can you find all 3?

bye!

Vacay 2012 Part 3: ¡Viva México!

Happy belated Cinco de Mayo! After being out of town four weekends in a row, we had some major work to do around the house this weekend. So, after 10 hours of non-stop slaving away Saturday, we decided to reward ourselves with a trip back to Mexico, in spirit.

We we went to Sweetwater Chophouse in Defiance because they had some great Mexican food specials. I had the braised beef short rib chimichanga and Ian had the lobster enchiladas. YUM!

Ian and I LOVE Mexican food in all forms. (beans + cheese + rice + salsa + chicken/beef/pork/seafood = food heaven.) So naturally, when we had to decide on what excursion we would do for our cruise stop in Cozumel, we knew we wanted it to include authentic Mexican food.

We looked over a ton of Royal Caribbean excursion options, which included boat rides, beach adventures, tours of ruins, swimming with dolphins or stingrays, ect. The options were very overwhelming and also very expensive. Most of the good excursions, which included food, were over $100 per person.

Since we had access to beaches in the greater Tampa area while staying with my grandparents (before and after our cruise), we eliminated the beach excursion options possibilities.

Ian and I had gone on a boat ride/stingray adventure in 2009 in the Caymans (A trip that I won! Yes, people really do win free trips to places. Now, I will officially never win anything else in my life. I'm OK with that.) Swimming with animals really didn't appeal to us this trip (...probably because I accidentally put Ian in a lot of danger in the Caymans. Our catamaran stopped at a shallow point in the ocean and we got to "swim" with the stingrays. A stingray as big as the moon brushed up against me and I jumped on Ian. I made Ian lose his balance which caused him to step around. The only thing you are not supposed to when visiting with stingrays is to step around. You are supposed to shuffle your feet, because if you step on a stingray as size as the moon, they will sting you and it will hurt. Ian got lucky and we got back on the boat until everyone finished their "swim").

I love history, but the tours of the Mayan ruins were pretty far away and traveling in a hot van with a bunch of strangers for hours sounded like work. Mayan ruins had to wait for another day, some day.

We did some research and decided we would do our own tour of Cozumel. Cozumel is an island off of Mexico and appeared to be very safe. We decided we would do some shopping for souvenirs, really jump into the culture and pick out our own authentic Mexican meal. Also to our benefit, I studied the Spanish language for 8 years. (This really didn't come in handy in Cozumel, almost everyone spoke English.)


The evening before the stop in Cozumel, Cougar and her friend (you get to meet them in my next post), gave us a coupon for a free snack plate at Poncho's Backyard in Cozumel. Perfect! We planned to go there for lunch.

When the ship landed at the port, we took off on our adventure.

International Port is behind me.

It seemed at the time that the port was a huge tourist trap, so we moved through the winding port buildings as fast as we could. We had to walk through a half mile of very aggressive salesmen trying to sell us non-Royal Caribbean excursions, jewelry, and souvenirs. We made our way through the port quickly and followed the signs to the taxi station.

I was very thankful there was an official taxi station and that all the taxis looked the same and were numbered. I felt really safe since there weren't any unmarked taxi's, and that we were getting into a legitimate vehicle.

Per our research, we told the taxi driver where we wanted to go and negotiated the cost before we got in. Seven dollars and fifteen minutes later we arrived to our destination, the Forum Shops. These shops were highlighted on a flyer that we got as we exited the boat.

A "bouncer" greeted us at the door to the shops, and we headed in. (bouncer?) These Forum shops were actually an indoor mall (what!?). It was a really nice indoor mall. This is not at all what we wanted to do. I should have inferred that because the name was Forum Shops, in English, that this might be the case. If we wanted to go to the mall we would have stayed in America. Because we were there, we did a loop around the mall and most of the shops were not open yet. From what I could tell, it seemed most were stuffy jewelry stores. (Get me out of here.)

We promptly left the mall and headed across the street where we could get a good view of the beautiful water. I had a little bit of crystal clear - sparkling blue - water envy. Unfortunately, there wasn't a beach as it had appeared from the other side of the road. The water came right up to the street, so we just snapped a picture and decided to keep on keepin' on.

We continued down the road and looked through a couple shops that were more authentic. We browsed the shops along the main road, and then a Mexican gentlemen asked us to come down the alley to his shop off the main drag. (Um, sure!) We followed him... even though I began to see flashes of the Lifetime Natalee Holloway movie in my head. 

He tried selling Ian cigars and somehow the $60 box was down to $20 in about five minutes. Ian was super uncomfortable and didn't end up buying any because he doesn't know a lot about cigars (and I was afraid we might be buying something illegal. I mean how are we supposed to know!?) I was eyeing a Mexican blanket. I found a color I liked in the stack and began to negotiate. The sign said they were $25. I said I would pay $10. He said $15. We landed at $12. We walked out of there and headed back to the main road. We survived. And I got a great deal, right? 

As we continued down the road we noticed 95% of the shops had the same items, even the same as the shop in the alley and the shops at the port. I found the blanket I bought for $12, was only $4 in other shops. Crap. 

Note to future visitors of Cozumel. You only really need to go into a couple shops and negotiate, negotiate, negotiate if you see something you like! Most shops sell the same items. Also, the International Port shops seemed a little more expensive then the shops further in town. But I'm sure you could negotiate prices down with them as well. 

I was pissed.

I had some more shopping to do, so I needed to be more aggressive. I had been seeing some bright Cozumel shirts that I thought my sisters might like. Most shops were selling them 2 for $20. I was determined to get a deal on them.

We went into a shop and I saw the shirts I wanted. There was a girl working that looked about 15 years old. She asked if I spoke Spanish, in Spanish, and I said "Si, un poco." (Yes, a little.) She smiled. Then we continued to negotiate in English. ha. I kind of felt bad for her. This is probably their only source of income. And, why were they letting their child work at the store by herself? As soon as I said I would pay $10 for 2 shirts, she got real sassy with me. I didn't feel that bad anymore. I showed her the $10 bill and said that's all I can pay. She accepted, and I only hated myself a little bit.

Here are the other souvenirs we picked up.

for our Christmas tree

for Ian's mom

for my mom

Now, time for our lunch adventure.

We could not find the restaurant for the life of us. We walked a really, really long way down the main road, in the scorching heat, hoping we would run into a big sign that said PONCHO'S BACKYARD. We passed this pretty wall... and then we weren't in Kansas anymore.

We walked further... and finally asked a local person if they knew where Poncho's was located. They said it was further down the road, in the direction we were going. So we continued to walk and walk. Let's just say the direction we were going . . . I was losing my appetite to nerves, and I was about to pass out from the heat. Tourist bait.

We never found it. So, we turned around and walked back towards Kansas. We were very close to giving up on our authentic Mexican food experience, and almost went into Margaritaville, a restaurant/bar we passed. Tragic.

No! We want authentic Mexican and I want to use our free snack plate coupon! As we got closer to Kansas, we hailed a cab and had the driver take us to Poncho's. It was not in the direction we were headed before. Meaning, the local lied to us or there was some miscommunication. Minutes later we are at a storefront near the Forum Shops where we began. Huh?

The restaurant was behind one of the shops we had gone into earlier.

When we walked in to Poncho's, it occurred to me that maybe this restaurant we had been searching for wasn't so authentic after all? In hindsight, with the name "Poncho's Backyard" in English, and the fact our coupon was given to Cougar and her friend on the ship . . .we should have known... Stupid tourists.

We were exhausted. We decided to stay and enjoy this experience:

* The woman musician and I had a smiling contest.
* Ian and I each had one very strong margarita.
* Our gourmet Mexican was tasty. Authentic? Well, I'm not quite sure. Expensive? Yes.
* After handing over the snack plate coupon, and reminding her server 3 times about it, we finally got it after we finished our meal. I wish I had taken a picture of this snack plate! It was pretty much a single chip in some refried beans. (Hilarious. All that for this!?)

We had fun, but if we were to stop in Cozumel again, on a cruise ship, I think we would take a taxi to one of the beaches. The same beaches that were options as excursions through the cruise, you can get to on your own and pay a la cart for the beach activities you want to do (like snorkeling, jet ski rental, kayak rental, ect). Also, I'm sure the beach would have had the same souvenirs and Mexican food.

Lots of lessons learned, just a couple of arguments and some laughing after the fact.

We ended up spending $40 on lunch, $20 on cabs and $30 on souvenirs. Total of $90.

After our emotional and exhausting morning/lunch in Cozumel, we headed back to the ship to relax by the pool.

Stay tuned for Vacay 2012 Part 4: The things cougars say.

Adios! XO

Vacay 2012 Part 2: Cruisin' for a bruisin'

Welcome to part 2 of our vacation. the cruise. To keep this vacation going as long as possible (hehe) part 3 will be about our stop in Mexico and part 4 will be about Ian & cougars. Get excited. 

Now for the cruise. You are probably curious about the post title? Nope, I didn't hurt myself physically (well, except for punishing by body to excessive eating and sugary pool-side drinks).

cheers!

I just bruised my ego and pocket book.

Those cruise ships are genius! By the time you have paid for your cruise, which includes lodging, all your wonderful meals, snacks, desserts, coffee, tea and water, and lots of entertainment, you forget about the $800 you spent already and you spend another $500!

To soak up the free-ness, we used the free pool chairs and towels, ate everything possible, enjoyed live music at the pool, live music at the piano bar and went to a couple shows at the cruise theater. But because you are confined to the ship, and the ship only (except for our stop in Mexico) you get curious...

...about the gambling, the art auction, the really-not-free alcoholic drinks, the mini fridge with $4 bottles of Evian water, a $13 yoga class, a $15 pool-side massage and bingo...ect.

I shouldn't complain. We got great prices on our plane tickets, the price of the actual cruise was average AND we had a free place to stay and free food for 6 days in Oldsmar, FL. Also, we kept track of our spending on the cruise (you pay for everything with your cruise ship card and can check total spending on our room tv!).  Don't get me wrong. We had fun and have no regrets. (I'm just being dramatic as usual.)

Our overall spending strategy was: let's not get too crazy, but let's have fun.

Between gambling and bingo we lost a total of $32. Not too bad.

no bingo win for us :(

And even though the pretty drink menu was tempting, we mostly ordered off-menu and saved about $4 a drink. Also, we opted into a wine package on the first night after we realized how much we would save if we wanted wine with our dinners. The advertising claimed with the package we would save 25%, but I think it was more. Even better, we got to be the snobby cool couple at dinner that had a bottle of wine delivered to our table that we shared with our assigned table-mates.

hi, Ian! there you are!

My ego was bruised because there were SO many fit super humans in the age range of 40-60. It didn't help that on most days our sun bathing chairs were placed strategically along the jogging track so that we could stare try not to stare in envy of the crazies motivated people running on a moving ship in 80+ degree heat.

I went on vacation feeling OK about my bathing-suit-body. I've been trying to lose that "love chub" I have gained since the wedding, (sort of). As this vacation got closer, (like a couple weeks before), I put myself on a strict 1400 calorie diet (well, except for pulled pork) and made an effort to work out a little more (twice a week?). I lost some pounds.

In effort to keep bathing-suit-body, er, fit? I decided to try yoga at the cruise fitness center the morning after our first night on the ship. I had to pay $13, which in comparison to the the $10 drinks didn't seem too insane bad. 

Note to readers and my future self about yoga on a cruise ship: yoga which encompasses balancing, on a moving ship, is actually very difficult. Especially at 8am, when you are hungover slightly dehydrated and sea sick from a night of serious waves that kept me awake because I realized that our room was on the bottom of the ship and we would die first if for some reason the pattern of cruise ships sinking happened close to the anniversary of the Titanic sinking. Was that a run-on? :)

After day one yoga, and realizing my counterparts (super-human-obsessive compulsive-must be starving - greek gods) weren't even breaking a sweat, the only rational thing to do at this point was to relax and keep doing what we are good at...

The pictures below will help to explain.

Enjoy and stay tuned for part 3, Mexico! XO

drinking a bucket of beer

eating key lime pie & lots of desserts

laying out (w/SPF 30 of course)

& drinking more sugary drinks

listening to live music