And they lived happily ever after...

Lady Luck

It is widely known that every little girl dreams about her wedding, visions float through her head of white tulle and large chapels with huge bunches of flowers at every pew....... wait. I never dreamed about my wedding. Nope, never did that. I dreamed about professions, being a teacher or even a cafe owner for Daisy's Dinner (another story involving a play kitchen). Sometimes about being a mommy, but I rarely carried around a baby doll and pretended to feed it. It wasn't until later, when boys stopped having coodies that I even began to imagine the falling in love part and even then those visions never turned to rice-throwing, family gathering affairs. I assume it was similar with my sister, because although we never discussed our dream nuptials, when it came her turn to walk down an aisle of sorts I'm pretty sure she never imagined it this way.

The story begins with a flashback to last December... after being trapped by a freak blizzard at grandma's house for several days, my sister and her boyfriend finally got the car out of the drive, through the tracks that functioned as the street for the next few weeks and headed off on their visiting rounds. Before they went out together, Bill took the car to run a few errands and was gone longer than expected. Upon returning he found an extremely impatient and unhappy Stephanie. After being berated for his tardiness they hopped in the car and started off to see the other grandmother. While driving through Arvada, Steph continued her tyrad and demanded to know where Bill had gone for so long. Finally unable to disemble longer, Bill confessed that he had been to a jewelry store to pick up her Christmas present. Tossing it to her he said “Here's your present." Opening up the little box she found... da da DA! - an engagement ring.

Utterly flabbergasted by this, Stephanie sat speechlessly and listened as Bill described his perfect engagement scenario. He had not only gone to the jewelry store but also picked up a picnic blanket and some other goodies for the road and was prepared to drive up to the snow-encased mountains, lay down the blanket, kneel upon it and hold out the ring to his blushing bride-to-be. He imagined her glowing face as the sun glinted off the diamond and their sheer joy as they promised each other to meld their lives together forever. Instead he got a hot-under-the-collar, screaming banshee of a fiance but at least she was his banshee. (N.B. I love my sister dearly, and will probably get noogied on the head for this description if not worse, but if you've ever met Stephanie Dyer on a bad day you know I'm not exaggerating here.) After the excitement and humor of the engagement wore off, the family was left to wonder anxiously about the big day. Where would it be? Most importantly, when would be? Finally, without anyone aware of it (except of course the family matriarch – grandma) the deal was sealed.

On a bright spring day in early March in Alaska the biggest event of the year took place! And what wedding ceremony would be complete without taking part in the American epitome of tenacity and determination – the Iditarod?

More information on The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race -
usually just called the "Iditarod", is an annual sled dog race in Alaska, where mushers and teams of dogs cover about 1,151 miles (1,853 km) in eight to fifteen days. The Iditarod began in 1973 as an event to test the best sled dog mushers and teams, evolving into the highly competitive race it is today. The current fastest winning time record was set in 2002 by Martin Buser with a time of 8 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes, and 2 seconds. [Wikipedia®]

Back to the prodigal sister... after watching the start of the Iditarod, Stephanie, Bill and a small contingent of friends journeyed to an old mine-turned-resort. The owner of this chunk of the Last Frontier has created a quaint mix of private cabins amongst the now defunct mining structures. After playing around like the children they are, the modest wedding party consisting of a friend-photographer, two witnesses and a friend-officiate begin the rather impromptu sacrament.

Monica, my sister's good friend from Mexico (yes, there is surprisingly a large diaspora of Mexicans in Alaska, don't ask me how they stand the cold) conducted the ceremony. In Alaska, each citizen is allowed to officiate one wedding. Probably because there is only about 1000 people in the whole state and each of them has ten acres to themselves, so finding priests and minsters can be problematic when you're ready to tie the knot. Monica rose gracefully to the challenge and braved the cold for her friend's special day.

After a quick, frozen service the bridal couple and companions retired to the Dr. Suess-like cabins for the reception and everyone's favorite time-honored tradition, the cake.

The hidden truth.. having told grandma the secret plan to run to the hills and get wed, my resourceful little granny jumped right on the internet, found the mine/resort they would be nuptualizing at and called up the place to make some special arrangements for the reception, including lucious chocolate-covered strawberries, the own champange flutes and cake. With her Alaskan co-conspirators, my grandma still managed to make her presence felt even 3000 miles away. Way to go granny!

As you can tell for this fairy tale story, they do things a little differently there, in Alaska. Brides wear 3 layers of clothing and a woolen hat rather than sleeveless white silk. And the grooms, plaid and muclucks. If you need further proof of the off-the-wall wedding decor, just check out the cake.











As our story comes to a close, we part with one last thought....

May joy and peace surround you both, contentment latch your door, and happiness be with you now and forever more.

A little makeover

Trying something new with the blog. Still a work in progess, but if you have comments or suggestions on the new looks let me know!

Stop - Thief!!

So.. because I am lacking in stories recently and I've been utterly remiss in my blogging, I've decided to "appropriate" a story from my new brother-in-law, Bill. (Yes, that in itself is a story to be told. Later.) So without further ado, I will let him do the telling....

Welp... summer is just about over with up here and I'm just back from one hell of a trip to the tip of the Aleutians. Me and a few guys from DOWL were lucky enough to have made it out for a five week tour to the second to last island on the Aleuatian chain - an island called Shemya.






Quite the adventure to say the least. We surveyed a two-mile long runway on the retired airforce base there. Sounds like a tedious task, but it was actually a lot of fun and I learned quite a bit. I feel extremely lucky to have made it out there... the trip of a lifetime!






Aside from that, Stephanie and I are doing great! It's so good to be home - especially since we just bought one a week before I left and we just adopted a new dog named Henry!

Yep... Stephanie came up with the name Henry. He was formally known as Doodleston-Jordan - NO JOKE! So needless to say, a new name was a must. He's cooler than cool. Very serious and well-behaved. Pretty amazing find, considering Stephanie found him at the dog pound. Life sure is amazing. Funny how things just roll along... wife, house... dog.... and in that order because the Mrs. says so. Life is going purty good. The only issue is finding enough time to enjoy all of the great things that we dream about having - when we finally get them! I'm certainly grateful.

One last peak (pun unintended, but still funny!) at Alaska -

where I'll be going for Thanksgiving!!!

Memorial Day Surprise!

Yes, you read right... Memorial Day. I'm a little late in updating (I'm sure now everyone who had been keeping up with my blog has now abandoned me as a bad job but I will persevere anyways!)



This story is a very happy one involving my dear friend Melissa and her dearer family. I wrote last year announcing the birth of the first baby among my friends and now I have another such announcement.

Mikayla Lynne Hall ..

came into the world on May 25th in the afternoon.

Here are mom and daughter beginning their fabulous modeling career!

The Halls

Some people are just too creative - aka fun stuff to entertain on a Friday

**Update at bottom!**

A friend of mine sent this link to me many months ago and I've been meaning to forward it since then, however its too good to just send it to a few people so I'm posting it hear so that everyone can see it. (That and its easier than coming up with actually original things to blog about.)

[Message along with the link]: There are no computer graphics or digital tricks in the film. Everything you see really happened in real time exactly as you see it. The film took 606 takes. On the first 605 takes, something, usually very minor, didn't work. They would then have to set the whole thing up again. The crew spent weeks shooting night and day. By the time it was over, they were ready to change professions. The film cost six million dollars and took three months to complete including full engineering of the sequence.

In addition, it is two minutes long so every time Honda airs the film on British television, they're shelling out enough dough to keep any one of us in clover for a lifetime. However, it is fast becoming the most downloaded advertisement in Internet history. When the ad was pitched to senior executives, they signed off on it immediately without any hesitation - including the costs. There are six, and only six, hand-made Honda Accords in the world. To the horror of Honda engineers, the filmmakers disassembled two of them to make the film.
Everything you see in the film (aside from the walls, floor, ramp and complete Honda Accord) is parts from those two cars. The voice over is Garrison Keillor. When the ad was shown to Honda executives, they liked it and commented on how amazing computer graphics have gotten. They fell off their chairs when they found out it was for real. Oh, and about those funky windshield wipers on the new Accords, the windshield wipers have water sensors and are designed to start doing their thing automatically as soon as they become wet. It looks a bit weird in the commercial.

Now, without further ado... the coolest, most complicated commercial I've ever seen - Hondas at work.


Ok, if the car stunt wasn't enough for you, or too technical, here's some other great ways to express your inner artist -

My sandcastles were never this elaborate. How about one of these ice sculptures for your wedding?

Per Request

This is Brooke in her IU grad days...

This is Brooke when I met her in Russia...

Any questions?

More SP fun!

I swear I'll stop soon-ish.....

Ehhh, Tony... whatsa matta for you?!


Zach and his Soggy Bottom Boy

The World According to ...... Trey?

Long story short is I found a great new website where you can create your own South Park characters. So I've been doing one of each of the people I know. Here are a few of the highlights... (its funnier if you know the model for each caricature).

Me, doing what I love by the beach



Mike as a traveling and teaching fool!



My STA buddy, Abbie



My sister at her wedding in Alaska



Her hubby, Bill, in the forests of Alaska


For more crazy South Park fun go straight to the source.

TGI Monday - ?

Was really hard to wake up today.. luckily my alarm rings long before I have to get up so I can laze about in bed for a while pretending that I am sleeping in. Preparation for the day went well, had breakfast, cheated on making lunch by bringing Easter leftovers. Then I get in my car, it won't turn over, my lights had been on all night. Oops.

Cell phone rings, for a split second I think its Creech (my boss) telling me I'm in trouble.. (don't know why I think that) or that its Betsy saying we could switch offices for the day. Instead its Mike, calling to chat. I talk with him while I walk down to the bus stop, during which time I realize there is a hole in my sock and my big toe is sticking out of it - I hate when that happens!

I get to the bus stop three minutes after the bus leaves. No problem, next one comes in little over ten minutes. I don't have any more passes for the bus, as I forgot to buy them last week. So I have to go with the old exact change in cash option. I double check that I have enough - oops again, one dollar short. Ok, don't worry, I'm right next to my old workplace where my lovely former coworkers are bound to be nice enough to lend me a buck.

Get there, get the dollar and head back out. The traffic lights are against me and I think I see my bus, paranoid to miss the last BX (next bus would be 30 minutes away!) I bolt across the street as cars are trying to turn left and almost get mowed down. I arrive to realize its not the Denver Express but the Local one that stops at every park and ride from here to Timbuktu and therefore Not the one I want. Wait around and finally get on the bus.

Have a nice ride to Denver, read a little and try to relax. After that the day picked up a bit. Went to the bank, got a bit of money, then treated myself to a 'Dulce de Leche' latte from Starbucks. Now with coffee and croissant in hand, I'm looking forward to welcoming Monday.

I belong in LONDON!

A little old fashioned, and a little modern. A little traditional, and a little bit punk rock. A unique woman like you needs a city that offers everything. No wonder you and London will get along so well.

What City Do You Belong In?

Universal Mother (copycat)

Below is a letter from Monica Sparks, my high school Humanities teacher, about her upcoming volunteer trip to Zambia. -Mike (and now Dacia)


Dear Friends and Family,

I have decided to spend a few weeks this summer volunteering in Zambia with Mothers Without Borders (MWB), an organization whose mission is to nurture and care for orphaned and vulnerable children. As a volunteer with MWB, I will teach children in community schools, tutor them in reading, play games, and offer comfort and hope. I will also help construct homes for orphans at the MWB Children’s Village and plant gardens for widows caring for orphans in a nearby village. I’m very excited to have this remarkable opportunity and am writing today to ask for your help.

At present, I do not have the $3,800.00 needed to fund this opportunity. Aside from the airfare for the trip, all of the costs for my expedition will go towards helping the children in Zambia. I would be grateful and honored for any help that you or any organization with whom you might be affiliated might be able to offer.

100% of the money raised to support this trip will be allocated to my expedition. Mothers Without Borders takes no overhead expenses from these funds. 100% of the donation is tax deductible.

You can make a donation online at:
MWB Donation

On the online donation form, indicate that your donation be applied to Monica Sparks, Zambia Volunteer.

As you may know, the AIDS pandemic in Africa is creating orphans on a scale unrivaled in world history. It is estimated that there are more than 30 million orphaned children in sub-Saharan Africa alone. For many of these children, access to even the simplest of things: food, shelter, clean water and education are out of their reach.

Since making my decision to spend some time volunteering in Zambia, I have learned of the tremendous need that exists there. It is estimated that there are over 1 million orphaned children. More than 20,000 of these children live on the streets. Their days are spent scavenging for food in trashcans and alleyways, or begging for handouts.

My previous time volunteering in Tanzania has given me first hand experience with the need that exists across Africa. Any help you can provide in assisting this return trip is appreciated.

Sincerely,

Monica

Vacationing in the Northwest

For my birthday treat to myself I decided to flee Colorado and its weekly snow and venture on North to Seattle to visit my friend Melissa. I'm here just for the weekend, and then its to Dallas for a training for work and then will return back to Boulder. I promise I will blog more stories upon my return. Until then enjoy your weekend everyone!

Blizzard time!!

As you probably know Colorado got blasted with a blizzard over the past couple of days. Here are a few pictures of my house, and my car... I'm sure those in the area have similar shots.

My house

View from my kitchen window, the garage on right

My car
(the one under the snow, the black dot is my side-view mirror)

The snow is past my knee!!

The long process of digging out..


At least a foot of snow on top of the car
(and the car is only 4 feet tall..)


A little snow tunnel..

And after 45 minutes... the result of hard labor

Quick trip to England

So quick in fact that I'm not even going to thoroughly blog it... basically the story goes, I went to England the last week of October (yes, I realize its now December and this entry is long over due), I stayed for seven days, saw friends and hung out with Darren and then we parted at the end of the week - in more ways than one.

The week was very fun. I saw some old mates of mine in Oxford and couple of my sister's friends, new arrivals in ol' Blighty in Cambridge. Also met up with my former work colleague in London and spent a couple days with Darren's family in Epsom. That pretty much sums up the experience. Two highlights were - the huge family party in Epsom and going to see Lord of the Dance in Oxford (yes, I am that dorky). Below you'll find pictures of the fun and good times.

Visit to England

Nickels and Dimes

There is a scene in the movie Before Sunrise in which a Parisian bum writes a poem for the two lead love interests, Jesse and Celine. The poet asked for one word from them and he would write a poem incorporating that word (I believe their word was "milkshake") and asked only that if they liked his work that they give whatever cash value they felt like giving.

I thought that that was a really good, creative way to make a little cash. Instead of just holding a sign or cup, create something and ask for something in return. That's why I'm much more likely to give money to a guy with a guitar on the street rather than the one with a "God Bless You" sign. Maybe I'm a middle-class bitch for that, but that's just how it is for me.

The day before I was to leave for England in late October, I was walking home from work and a 'bum' (is there now a PC term for that as well? I don't know) came up to me on Larimer Square. He asked if I had a minute to spare for him to read me some poetry he had written and like his fictional Parisian counterpart only asked me to give what I felt the reading desevered. I can't remember much about the poem he read to me, except that it really moved me. It was entitled "Nickels and Dimes" and was about walking around the streets asking for money and how some people ignore the homeless and the beggars (myself included at times) and how others do stop to give a little something. I told the wandering poet that I didn't have any nickels or dimes for him, so I gave him a dollar, it was the last one I had in my wallet. I would like to find that poet again and perhaps our paths will cross once more. Until then I hope he finds his nickels and dimes, nickels and dimes.

The Best of the Best

Ok, here's a little shameless advertising for Darren.

Basically he got on a community website to promote his business called - thebestof.co.uk (that's the website, not his business) and he needs your help!

Very simply put: The Best Of website uses Google Adwords on a pay-per-click system to get the advertisers website high up on a Google search. All you need to do is type "minibus in Abingdon" into google.co.uk or google.com and you will see Dazbus (or thebestof.co.uk/blahblah/somethingorother) somewhere on the first page. Now you just need to click on the link, and then go from the webvert to his oh-so-amazing (Thanks to Dave!) website. This will then elevate him in the Google rankings and increase his business so that he can make enough dough to come visit me!!

I'm depending upon you all as my friends and family to support my man in his endeavors. Also this link has a special component so I know who does and does not follow through in this humble request, so be warned, I know where most of you live and I'm a travel agent, I can get there.... hehe. Thanks!

Food, culture and ziplock

I have a couple good stories (with picutres) to tell, unfortunately I don't have the pictures on me and therefore can't tell the stories yet. However I did want to share with you some other amusing stories so I'm borrowing some one else's.

Lonely Planet's Blue List is a wonderful source for travel tips and just fun tales to brighten your day.. Here is some highlights from my recent browsing.

Little tips of the road-
Traveling and Ziplock Bags

Also good tips, not something to read before lunch -
Most vomit-inducing Chinese foodstuff

And finally, in honor of my upcoming trip to England -
Things to avoid in Britain



Ok.. one more just for good measure -
Things to bring travelling

Negligence (so bad that I even forgot to add a title)

I have been negligent in my reporting about my life and times. For that my sincerest apologies and here I will try to make amends.

I am now again gainfully employed - and I bet you'll never guess where! STA Travel has seen it in their hearts (aka pocketbooks) to take me back. So after an almost 2 month hiatus or outside-imposed sabtical as I call it, I'm back to being a travel agent. This time however I am spending my days at the Denver office in the historic Tivoli Center (right), meaning that I now commute from Boulder. At first I was a little skeptical on how the comutting would go but since I take the bus (which stops very close by to both my work and my house) it has turned out to be greatly beneficial for many reasons. First I get about an hour and a half of reading or sleeping time every day on the bus ride as well as about an hour of daily exercise walking to and from the bus stops.

As for the office itself, it is practically a mansion compared to the store in Boulder where I worked (a glorified broom closet). I'm still trying to remember all the tricks of the trade and the Sabre system as well as getting back into the habit of actually waking up early in the morning, but let me tell you how nice it is to see that pretty little pay check deposited in the ol' account again! That will induce me to do almost anything (within reason of course).

So in celebration and honor of my renewed relationship with STA here's a little travel advice, courtesy of Lonely Planet's Blue List.

	5 tips for happy travel (Or: The Wisdom of Retrospect) By: HappyGecko - 12 Jan 2006	Rating: 3.03 49 votes
	Keywords: Worldwide, food poisoning, toilet, hairstyles
not play “chicken” with a Tata truck (Nepal) Your hired tin-box taxi is no match for these monster-trucks protected by blessings of marigolds, Hindu icons and Christmas tinsel. Encourage your driver to adopt "might is right" as a new mantra. Plan to pack crash helmet next time. And Valium. WorldGuide: Nepal
Think carefully before trusting a Thai beauty salon (Thailand) Tropical sun and cheap beer may inspire exotic hairstyles. If you want braided extensions avoid hairdressers wielding orange horsetails and tubes of superglue. Especially if they don't know how to plait. Sober up and remember you are not Snoop Dogg. WorldGuide: Thailand
Beware of prawn curry on overland flights (Thailand) Kinda obvious? Prawn curry = landing, grabbing a cab and taking the first hotel room, with toilet, that you find. Realise in the morning the hotel is a brothel (how did you miss the hire a lady-boy sign??) Beef is always a wiser choice, or go hungry. WorldGuide: Thailand
Choose your toilet stop wisely (Nepal) You think the hillside where buckets of washing water are tipped is an OK night toilet? No! Himalayan temperatures turn water to ice. In darkness you tumble, pants down, mooning the moon. Not a good way to meet campers sleeping at bottom of hill. WorldGuide: Nepal
Chew thoroughly – the Heimlich manoeuvre may not be known (Egypt) Masticate well in cruising restaurants. Being whacked on the back by your spunky Arabian host shatters the Nile’s ambience. So does regurgitating the hunk'o'chunk like a snake eating a rat in reverse. Next time, order soup of you want to flirt. WorldGuide: Egypt

My sister's a freak

What can I say, I love my sister and look up to her (as younger sisters are apt to do) but sometimes I wonder and worry about Stephanie. And now I'm really worried about her summertime activities.

I understand she lives in Alaska now and that things happen a little differently there, and obviously nature plays a large part in her life up in the last frontier, so I shouldn't be too surprised by her recent ecological adventure.

(Be sure to watch all four exciting installments of the Fireweed Project!)