Christmas in July (or August, if you prefer)

Um...I love Christmas. I made a wreath a few years ago that is obviously Christmas themed (red and green ribbon and pine cones?), but I keep it on my door year round. I think it is an appropriate enough allusion to the bombardment of Christmas stuff that you will find upon entering my place. This is mostly because of the sheer volume of stuff I have purchased at Hallmark. You see, I collect Snoopy ornaments.

Here are a few of the 2009 ornaments from the Hallmark premier in July. Every year Hallmark issues 10-15 Snoopy ornaments that I feel the need to anticipate, covet, buy, horde, and then try to find a place to store for eternity. I have been doing this since 2004. But in addition to every Snoopy ornament, I also get the Gone With the Wind ornaments (one of my favorite movies), and whatever else catches my fancy. I have an addiction. And a storage problem.

I do have a storage closet - that is tiny, and holds only my excess luggage, winter coats, vacuum, and my Christmas tree, along with a few large RubberMaid bins with the ornaments in them. I really need more bins, however, because when Hurricane Ike hit Houston last year, along with the terrible destruction to my bathroom (the ceiling collapsed over my shower - making it unusable for weeks...) there was massive water damage to my closet. The real kicker about this was that me, being a flight attendant, I was picking up trips to get the hell out of my apartment (and into a shower) and didn't realize the water damage was slowly creeping into my storage closet - and into my huge ornament collection. When this realization occurred, I was almost inconsolable. Honestly, I really didn't lose many - for most were in the plastic bins and protected from the slow water drip - and when compared to those who lost their entire homes on Galveston or the Bolivar Peninsula, I am very fortunate. But even still, being from New Mexico, and having this be my first hurricane experience, I was not a happy girl. And I lost my Christmas tree! Post script to this - my insurance company USAA handled this very well unlike most insurance nightmares I keep hearing about on the news.

And, really, how could Secreteeyore pass this one up? The Ornament Debut is October 10-11 and the Open House at Hallmark is November 7-8; I have my calendar already marked. More Snoopy stuff to come...

The Tudors

For those of you who haven't seen The Tudors on Showtime, let me tell you, you are missing some good stuff. I have become a little obsessed with this series, so much so that I watched the first two season on DVD within a week. That was about 20 hours of sitting-on-the-edge-of-the-sofa-entertainment. Jonathon Rhys Meyers plays an amazing Henry VIII, and Natalie Dormer (pictured above) is his Queen Anne. The costumes, the music, the sets, the exteriors, the s-e-x! I didn't realize I had such an interest in this part of British history, and now that I know, there is so much to learn.

At the beginning of this year I read Philipa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl about Anne Boleyn's sister, Mary. I read that within a few days. Her writing style is amazing, and I have come to adore historical fiction because of Gregory. And then, non-revving to Japan at the end of May I started watching The Tudors because it's part of the 777's entertainment system, and the first four episodes are available. I was amazed. I wanted more. After I got home from my trip, I went to BN.com and bought the first two seasons immediately (luckily there was a buy two DVDs, get one free sale going on, so I also got 'The Duchess' for free...).

Anyhow, I also did some research and found out that I had started reading Gregory's Tudor series out of order, as she started with The Constant Princess, about Katharine of Aragon. I started to read this book next, and learned a lot about her. The Showtime series paints her as a pushover, but Gregory doesn't - she, as the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, comes from a line of warring spirits.

The next book in the series (after The Other Boleyn Girl) is The Boleyn Inheritance, about Henry's search for a wife after Jane Seymour's death. Henry is entombed next to Jane, and is said to favor her as his best and most loved wife, because she actually bore him a son; but she dies within a couple weeks of the birth. The way this is handled in the Showtime series is tragic. Henry does eventually go through three more wives after Jane, one of which he beheads (Kitty Howard)...

Right now I am reading The Queen's Fool, and I must say that it isn't on par with the rest of Gregory's novels. I think it is because it is through a made-up narrator - a girl named Hannah Greene who is a jester in the court of Queen Mary (Henry's daughter by Katharine of Aragon). I also find the plot between Queen Mary and Princess Elizabeth annoying, and I am actually not certain if I will read The Virgin's Lover (about Queen Elizabeth) because of it. The Showtime series portrays Lady Mary as such a pious and piteous creature so desperate for her father's love, I can't help but take her side in the novels.

The Showtime series has opened up my eyes to many things. For instance, I never knew about the Pilgrimage of Grace before it was a major plot in season three. Speaking of season three, seeing as how it isn't on DVD yet, and I don't have cable, this took a heck of a lot of patience with watchthetudors.com. I told you I was obsessed. Also, I suppose I knew, but it never really sunk in, that had Henry had a boy with Katharine (which he did, but died in infancy) he never would have tried like a madman to have sons with woman after woman, and the Reformation would not have taken hold in Britain as it did. Henry was a second son, and was actually being schooled for the Church before his elder brother Arthur died and he became King instead. He even wrote pamphlets against Luther along with Sir Thomas More in his early reign. He needed an heir, and Anne manipulated that into being the greatest proponent for the Reformation, and ensured her and her family's rise. I am just spellbound by the inner-workings of this...

Another of the key-figures in this is Sir Thomas More. I cannot begin to tell you how much his story touched me. I don't remember him in any of Gregory's books, but maybe then I wasn't paying attention. But in the series, season two, the episode where he is martyred is my favorite. Is that morbid? It is really a turning point for Henry because More was his best friend and his closest advisor, and he was executed for not pledging an oath saying that his marriage to Anne was valid and that Henry was the head of the Church in England, and not the Pope. I found, at Half-Price Books, a book by Vanora Bennett called Portrait of an Unknown Woman about More's family that I can't wait to read.

On my first trip to London, almost three years ago, I went to the Tower of London. I haven't been back since, but I am inspired to go again. Since my visit they have installed a tribute to Queen Anne and Queen Katharine Howard, and others who were beheaded there - a kind of glass pillow looking thing with an indentation like someone is sleeping on it. :)

My First Big Scuba Trip

For those of you who have been following my scuba lesson adventures, I just wanted to give everyone a little update on what I have actually done with my certificate - or "C-card" as it's called. I spent two lovely weeks in the South Pacific - a week in Guam and a week in Palau. Aaaahhh.


Palau today is probably most well known as a place where they filmed the television series "Survivor" twice. While Todd and I were there they were in the middle of filming of a Filipino Survivor and wrapping up French Survivor as well. I can certainly see why, it makes for some amazing and breathtaking background shots, and it is so isolated. Even as tourists, Todd and I were the only ones walking around. We went to a famous Indian restaurant there and were the only ones there. Romantically, he said he reserved the whole place for us. More like he reserved the entire chain of islands for us.




Back during the war years, however, Palau was the site of some major battles, as was most of the South Pacific. The Battle of Peleliu was a tragic story - the US had thought they would secure this little airstrip in a matter of days, but instead the Japanese dug in their heels and the battle went on for more than two months. This would become a trend (Iwo Jima and Okinawa have similar stories). It has become a very controversial battle because of the lack of strategic value - the airstrip was never actually used for the attack on the Philippines as was intended, and the immensely high casualty toll - more than 9500. When considering the number of men actually involved for this little island, the Battle of Peleliu has the highest casualty rate in any battle fought in all of the Pacific Theater. The picture above was taken at the Etpison Museum and shows some of the artifacts that have washed ashore from the battles. I have always been fascinated with these kinds of things (as well I should - I am a Navy brat, and was born in Japan...) and this place is loaded with history. In a related note, Palau has been in the news recently as the possible relocation point of Guantanamo detainees...



Speaking of history, this picture is of a reconstruction of the traditional male meeting house, called a 'bai'. The native Palauans were matriarchal and matrilineal, and were fishermen mostly, for their sheer availability.







For being as small as Palau is, it has its own brewing company. What??? Hell yeah!!! Red Rooster Brewing Company has four options: Amber, Mango Wheat, Dark and Stout. We partook of many at the famous bar Kramer's. And it was good.




Palau is known for its large clam shells, and this is me at a clam farm. We actually later snorkeled out to a place where you can skin dive down and sit into one the size of a lawn chair (those were obviously dead of course). I did see some alive while scuba diving, and they are amazing. Their lips are many different colors all at once - it is amazing to see.


This picture makes me laugh, because the size of the vegetation here is like something a dinosaur would eat - it is the place that time forgot.

This picture is from Milky Way Cove. I took this on our kayak tour of the Rock Islands. When we sailed in to this little grotto my breath was taken away. The water is a completely different color than anything I have ever seen in my life, luminescent. Our guide skin dived down to the bottom and got a bucket of the sand so we could rub it all over ourselves - it is said to hold magical properties for the skin. It smelled like phosphorus, so I could see why. We then jumped in and splashed around like children for a while. It is one of my favorite memories!

Onto the scuba diving. Todd and I did three days of diving, two dives a day, for a total of six dives. Each dive was vastly different. I can see why Palau is such a diver's Mecca. The first time I did a back roll off of the dive boat and let the air out of my buoyancy control device (bcd) and started sinking into the deep blue Pacific, I must admit I was scared to death. There is so much to remember! What hose goes where, which button does what, etc. And there were things that we were doing that I had never even heard of before - like reef hooking. So after our descent - to 70 feet! I had only gone down 20 feet in training! - we swim around for a bit and then approach this sheer drop-off that apparently goes down for thousands of feet more. We then clip ourselves to a cord that has a metal hook at the end and then hook that end to the coral and put some air into our bcd so we were a bit more floaty and we just hang out and watch the goings on of this drop-off. This drop off was actually one side of a trench that was something of a superhighway for all kinds of schooling fish - and the sharks who eat them! I saw sharks on my first dive! Oh my god! I was so friggin' excited and hyped up on adrenaline I guess I forgot to be scared. It was so amazing!

The other dives were as varied as the day is long. One we did was called a 'wall' dive which means we descended next to a sheer cliff that goes down thousands of feet and let the current move us slowly by all the different corals: branch, brain, cabbage and the others I don't know the name of. I saw so many tropical fish in such vibrant colors, and sea stars, and eel. I saw sea turtles twice - slowly making his way past me without a care in the world. Another dive we swam up to a sunken ship grown over with all types of coral and teeming with fish. I cannot believe how much there is to see out there.

This is a photo of one of the famous Rock Islands of Palau. You can see how the ocean is slowly eating away at the base to make the iconic mushroom shape. Some of the islands I saw whilst kayaking were so amazingly structured - it looked like they were about to teeter off into the ocean, for the bases had been washed away to almost nothing.

This is the famous "Survivor" beach, where most of the filming took place. We had lunch here the first day during our surface interval between dives. While we were motoring out here I began to recognize the shape of the islands and knew where we were before the dive master even told us. I can't believe I have been to a place so damned remote that Survivor has been filmed there!

All in all, Palau is an amazingly beautiful place. It is so untouched, so virgin. I cannot wait to go back to the South Pacific and explore more of these islands - specifically Yap, which is known for their large money stones and manta ray, and Chuuk (also known as Truk), which is known for the vast quantities of sunken WWII airplanes. I can see that these unspoiled little gems hidden away won't stay that way for long, and I need to see them before they get any more developed. I remember vividly while walking to dinner one night, seeing a local drinking the last bit out of a plastic juice bottle and then throwing it off of the bridge into the ocean. My jaw dropped. And though Todd and I were, as it seemed, two of the few American tourists, the Japanese come there in droves. And I saw them doing some questionable things while snorkeling, such as chumming the fish with bread (a big no-no in a protected environment), and taking away some coral and shells. It makes my heart hurt, but is also very inspiring to me to see all these things soon.

I'm alive

Yes, I am. I just haven't had much to say, I suppose....

I just wanted to let everyone know about a great blog I stumbled upon, however - At Home With Books. It is really inspiring to me - basically something I want to turn my own blog into. Hope you all enjoy!

http://athomewithbooks.blogspot.com/

For the Love of Craig

My celebrity crush is Craig Ferguson. I am in love and lust with this man. He makes me laugh with his dirty sense of humor, devilish grin, and Scottish brogue every night. And, we seem to share something in common. A love of the same city - Albuquerque. I grew up there. He visited there, I am assuming for some stand-up gigs, and sees the humor in the small, quaintness of my hometown. One night, a few years ago, he was interviewing Neil Patrick Harris, another of Albuquerque's native sons, and they were talking about the wonders of my city and Craig brought up that Albuquerque has this little hole-in-the-wall Rattlesnake Museum in Old Town.

Since that time, the Rattlesnake Museum in Albuquerque has been an ongoing joke for Craig - and subsequently myself. I now live in Houston for my job with Continental, but I go back to visit my family often as I can. This time, I decided to make a visit to the Rattlesnake Museum. I was not disappointed. For $3.50 I was let into a very, very small set of rooms with dozens of terrariums with all kinds of snakes, lizards, amphibians.

This white snake is a rarity, but not actually an albino, because it doesn't have pink eyes. Weird, huh?

Another of the residents of the Museum. I have never been especially afraid of snakes, but my sister still tells the story of the when she and my father saw Indiana Jones together and the cobra was about to strike Indy and my father cried out in the theater embarrassing her to death. I am surprised that he wanted to go inside with me!

I happened to mention that Craig Ferguson love led me to the Museum to the curator, and he said, "Well, you must know about the mug then!? We're completely sold out, and the waiting list is a mile long." I had been hoping to buy the mug - a guest who had filmed a movie in Albuquerque brought Craig a mug from the Museum a few weeks ago and he has used it on air ever since. It is in the shape of a coiled rattlesnake and the handle is the tail, in a word, it is awesome, but I decided not to put myself on the waiting list. I did buy a magnet to add to my magnet collection from around the world, however.

Despite the fact that the Rattlesnake Museum (and Albuquerque in general) is the butt of many of Craig's good-natured jokes, I found it to be very educational and a great way to spend part of my day.

The Squawk Heard Round the Plane

I have a really loud laugh. It is hard to control, especially when something is totally ridiculous. Well, this afternoon I came in from Paris, working with a great crew. Anyhow, this being Paris (long and fancy BusinessFirst flight), there is an International Service Manager (ISM) and he did a quick briefing before we started the trip in Houston about keeping it down in the galley - especially during crew breaks (we are selfish and want an undisturbed nap time). Not a problem. Pretty standard - don't be a Mrs. Happy Galley Pants and click every latch and slam every door on every cart while your fellow crew members are on their naps. Be respectful. I got it.

Apparently, I didn't get it on the way back, however. You see I was working with this really awesome crew, one of the best in recent memory, in fact! I met a cool guy named Joe and we really got along well and seem to have the same sense of humor - we were laughing a lot. Well we were babysitting the back galley while some of the others were on their break. In hindsight, this was probably a Squawk waiting to happen. A call light went off, and I said "Not it" because I had gotten the one prior to that one. His turn. That's how it works. So he took a cup of water to the call light and on his way back to the galley he picked up this random, stray leaf of newspaper just hanging out in the middle of the aisle. He had been mercilessly been making fun of me on the flight to Paris for sorting out the newspapers out of the trash to be recycled, so I asked him if he wanted to recycle it. He rolled his eyes and was like "Yeah," and proceeded to crumple it up into a tight wad and shoot it into the corner trashcan for three points.

So I get up to go to the lav, and this girl - maybe late teens, early twenties- hangs out into the aisle and flags me down. She was like "That newspaper was set there for a reason; I threw up on the floor and it was covering up my vomit."

Okay. It was really hard to keep a straight face in this situation. Many things were going through my mind: 1) Gross! 2) You are old enough to vomit into a bag or the lav 3) Joe just touched your vomit cover! I really haven't the slightest idea what I told this girl, because I high-tailed it to the back galley to tell Joe what he just (unknowingly) did.

Joe: "You're shitting me." I shake my head trying to stifle laughter. The look on his face is priceless: disgust, confusion, but still seeing the humor in the complete absurdity of it all. I let out one high-pitched bird like Squawk - seriously on accident. I was trying to keep it down. It was a funny moment....

Within 0.2 seconds the ISM comes roaring in the back galley and was like "THAT'S not going to fly! That (loud noise[Squawk]) can be heard five rows into the cabin!" in that imposing leadership-like condescending whisper. He must have been wearing speed skates or something. He really looked like a caricature of himself, all red-faced and vein-popping. Of course we explode into a fit of giggles once he leaves.

From that point on, Joe started miming a crane and Squawking (not as loud as me) for a few cheap laughs at my expense. For a guy who picked up vomit in his bare hands without knowing it, I'll let that one slide.

Coke and the Asparagus Steamer

I am a Coca-Cola addict. Agent DragonFly can attest to the severity of said addiction. I am very picky - Coke Zero? Zero about sums it up. Diet Coke tastes gross. Mexican Coke? No, thank you! Pure, American, Coca-Cola in the red can with the white ribbon, please! Actually there is a hierarchy to the taste of Coke, as well. First comes the supreme king out of a glass bottle - but this is hard to find and pretty expensive. Then out of a can - and I love the sound of that pop-top. Then comes fountain soda. Then comes out of a plastic bottle 20 oz., 1L, or 2L. This is seriously the bottom of the barrel in Coke drinking quality - there is something definitely off with the flavor and the fizz evaporates exponentially faster.

That being said, a little over three years ago, Coke introduced MyCokeRewards.com, a program that rewards frequent Coke drinkers with free stuff. Of course, I was one of the first to start redeeming the codes under the bottle caps and on the 12 and 24 pack cartons via text message and on their website. Over these past three years I have gotten 2 tee shirts with various Coke logos, a cooler with zipper pulls in the shape of Coke bottles, 4 Melamine plates with the Sprite logo on it, a Coke key chain, a Coke Santa Christmas ornament, a model of the Coke 16 wheeler delivery truck, and a Coke lunchbox, among other things. But last month was the ultimate in rewards arrived in the mail. An asparagus steamer! At 1475 points, it was a little steep (considering that a 20 oz. bottle is 3 points) but I am in happy homemaker love with the thing. I don't really see the connection between Coke and asparagus, but I love that I got it free for drinking my favorite beverage! :D