Oh give me a home...

In November, I took a trip to Dallas for a week to explore the area and look for a home.

I found that what everyone says it's true. It's a vibrant city with plenty of great shopping! This includes Neiman Marcus's flagship store, which fortunately for my pocketbook, means equally great outlet stores.

The malls in the city are enormous and boast the cleanest bathrooms I've ever seen. I took this photo just BEFORE the cleaning lady came through.

I was reminded by a history channel commercial that Dallas is the site of the assassination of JFK. Although I didn't have a chance to stop in the museum, I did drive through Dealey Plaza. I was struck by how small the area is! I always pictured it a big flat expanse, but the surrounding area is an intimate hill. The spot where JFK took the fatal bullet is marked with an X in the road. A bit macabre in my opinion.

I also took a trip over to the Ft. Worth Stockyards where I had dinner in restaurant that featured bar stools made from saddles. Nearby is the world's biggest honky tonk. I'll definitely be back there to try my hand at some country line dancing.

After looking all around town, I finally settled on an apartment in Dallas's uptown area. It's a trendy area of shops, restaurants, bars, apartments, and such all within walking distance. There's even a trolley line that runs up and down the main strip.

I'll be moving in and getting settled in January, so look for an address update from me soon! Until then, I'll be on Maui enjoying these little dears.

Going to the Big D!

I know, I know. I've been completely neglecting my blog lately. But, by now, most of you know I have been very busy. It's football season after all.

Oh yeah, and I'm moving to Dallas! That's right, as of December 9th, I'll be a Texan.

I'm relocating within Boeing to work on a new program. I'll still be a software engineer, but on a real program headed to production someday. That means leaving behind the fun, no rules world of integrated simulation. However, the new job is a great learning opportunity that will be a great step for my career.

Any advice on Dallas would be appreciated. I have yet to step foot in the state of Texas! My awesome cousin Ali seems to like the state pretty well though, so it must be a decent place. :)

I'll be reporting back next week after a trip down there to find a home. Stay tuned!

Pens down, please.

At 9:15 Thursday night, I hurriedly finished the sentence I was scribbling, put down my pen, and finished my current career as a student. My MBA complete, I've put the capstone on 21 years of education. I'm excited. And terrified.

I know people think I'm crazy, but I enjoy being a student. I like going to class to discuss theories and applications. I appreciate the satisfaction of a job well done on a paper. And I don't even mind the endless hours of material to read. My classmates speak of getting their normal lives back at graduation. But for me, school is my normal life. Balancing work, school, and friends keeps me engaged and satisfied. I work hard, I play hard, and I study hard.

So like a drug addict, I'm already feeling the pangs of withdrawal.

The silver lining, however, is that I have a long list of things to keep me busy while I adjust. My house has a to-do list a summer long. Hoku has been requesting trips to the dog park. My nightstand is piled high with books I've been wanting to read for years. There are golf balls to hit, horses to ride, and laps to swim.

And maybe I'll sign up for that Irish language course I've been wanting to take. You didn't think I'd go cold turkey, did you?

Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks.

Or better yet, get them for free.

Chris, Dayna, Me, G-Bo, Katie

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Chris emailed the St Louis Notre Dame alumni bunch with a great idea. Let's tailgate for the cardinals game on Saturday!

The day started at 9am when the Cardinals ticket box sells "first pitch tickets". $11 gets you a voucher for a pair of tickets that are either unsold, returned, or unused players' family tickets. You don't know where your seats are until they hand you a randomly selected white envelope containing the tickets as you walk through the gate at game time.

Thankfully, the boys, Chris and G-Bo, volunteered to pick up the ticket vouchers for us. Dayna and Katie deemed the hour much to early to be up and about, and while those slackers were sleeping, I was garage sale shopping. (I got a beautiful silver chain, a couple of handy tote bags, and a few books on business strategy - all for under $4!)

After a trip to the driving range with Dayna, we went down to the stadium for the tailgate. Ignoring the 80 year old interstate, the parking lot has a nice view of the stadium and the arch.

We set up our tailgate next to a fraternity alumni tailgate. We had a yummy spread of pupus [appetizers], a couple coolers of beer, a bucket of sporting equipment, a stereo, and a few chairs. We also had the weather on our side. It was a beautiful sunny day, and totally atypical of St. Louis in July, not too hot.

The day was turning out to be a nice, average Saturday hanging out with my friends.

That was, until G-Bo came across a Santa hat in his Jeep. Realizing that the hat was Cardinals colors, he put it on. From that point on the day was anything, but average.

The hat instantly bonded us with the tailgate next door. This came in handy twice that day. First, when G-Bo decided pupus weren't enough, and went to pilfer burgers from our frat friends. Secondly, when they helped us jump start G-Bo's car after the game.

To fill some time before the game, we decided to have a dance contest. What's a better way to work of marshmallow fluff calories than by dancing?

G-Bo pulled out the moves he learned from hours of "So You Think You Can Dance" reruns.

And we all participated in a grand finale by dancing on the ceiling.


As our dance-a-thon came to a close, an ill-fated girl on a rickshaw came riding by. The boys finagled the poor girl into giving them a ride around the parking lot, then spent the entire ride harassing her about being a cubs fan. Fortunately, Chris learned some empathy some where along the way, and he gave the girl a tip in exchange for her good humor (I'm pretty sure his phone number was tucked inside the $10, too).

About this time, to our surprise, our friend Janine showed up! She's just starting her third year of med school at Wash U. As a result, she's been being held captive in the hospital and we haven't seen her in months. Why they think it's a good idea to first deprive aspiring doctors of sleep, then hand them a scalpel is a mystery to me.

Never letting go of his aspirations to be a broadway dancer, G-Bo did a celebratory dance as Janine and Chris caught up.

We capped off our tailgate by inventing a fun new game. It's essentially 'hot potato' combined with musical chairs. A CD is played filled with an hour's worth of 1-minute clips of songs as the ball is tossed around. If you're caught with the ball when the song ends, you lose! Notre Dame kids have a natural affinity for any sort of athletic competition, so this kept us entertained for quite some time.

After a fun afternoon of tailgating adventures, it was time to go to the stadium for the game. Despite chants of "No Whammies! No Whammies!" as we opened our ticket envelopes, we all ended up with standing room only tickets. It wasn't long though, before we snapped up our first seats of the game.

Deciding that it would be better to find seats with an actual view of the game, we quickly moved on. As we made our way through the stadium, we passed by several of the special suites. Entrance to these oases are typically $100 per ticket. Coming to the Bank of America suite, the boys decided they could talk our way in. The girls stood buy, rolling our eyes, hopelessly embarrassed.

After what seemed like hours, we decided to head over and forcibly make them give up, so we could move on to find some real seats. The charming lady guarding the entrance was explaining to the boys what a stickler for the rules her boss is. Undeterred, Chris and G-Bo told her to go get him. Ron came over, and the boys started working their shtick on him, politely, persistently, and pathetically asking to get in. Ron was clearly entertained with their jovial nature, and decided to throw them a bone.

"I'll tell you what, if you can guess the magic word, I'll let you in."

We huddled up to discuss the options.

"Hippopotamus! It's got to be Hippopotamus."

"No, no, no. Something about baseball or the Cardinals."

"No way, that'd be too obvious. It's Hippopotamus"

After a few minutes of intense debate, we came to a consensus and went back to Ron.

"The magic word is... Ho Ho Ho."

A look of shock and amusement came over Ron's face as he said,

"Well, I'll be. You guessed it!"

G-Bo's santa hat had made the day. Ron gathered us round, doling out strict instructions about behaving ourselves as he handed out official wrist bands and commemorative cups. We entered the suite to a wonderful world of air conditioning, free food, free drinks, and stadium seats.




The guys made such an impression on Ron, that he took a photo of us in the suite. When we stopped by to say hello a couple weeks later, he had a print of it for each of us.

"I figured I'd be seeing you guys again."

Nice job, guys.

Not bad for a day that started with $5.50 standing room only seats.

How Time Flies

Last month was my 5 year college reunion. Gulp. I've been out of college for longer than I was there! It's a surprising thought...it seems like just yesterday I was rolling out of my bunk bed, fumbling for my books, and running off to class in my sweatpants having stayed up way too late giggling with my dormmates the night before. Fortunately, the bond with my classmates is strong, and when we get back together, it's like we never left.


Ann (left) and Beccah were my only close friends who were able to make it up for the reunion. Ann and I stayed in one of the dorms, Alumni Hall. It's normally a men's dorm (and boy does it smell like one), but for graduation weekend, it was appointed the class of 2004 dorm. It was very strange staying with boys in the dorm - there was one across the hall from me who I had to wave hello to while walking back from the shower. I really did appreciate the single sex dorms while in college!

Although I wish more of my regular crowd had been there, I had fun catching up with those friends that I hadn't seen since graduation - particularly, of course, my fellow engineers.

Zakiya was the only other female in my major, Computer Engineering. We joke that our school surveys were never anonymous. Major + gender + ethinicity had us pegged.

I also got to mingle with some of the older classes. They do reunions in 5 year intervals, so we were on campus with the classes of 1999, 1994, 1989, etc, all the way back to those celebrating their 50+ year reunions.

Erin (in the background with her tongue out) taught the class of '94 proper slip n' slide technique on the quad.


The weekend was also a nice chance just to walk around campus free from the crowds of a football weekend.


This is part of the new law school addition. They're going a bit nuts with all the new buildings, but they've done a nice job of keeping the architectural style consistent in the last decade. (The 2008 campus plan indicates the styles are Collegiate Gothic, Neoclassical, and French Empire.)

The reunion weekend reminded me just how much I love being on campus. I'm counting the days until I go back this fall for football season!


Love thee, Notre Dame.

The Flyin Hawaiian Comes to Town

Shane Victorino, center fielder for the Phillies and a fellow St. Anthony Trojan, came to town in May to play the Cardinals. Chris, another one of the ND alums I run around with, is from Philly as is Kathleen's dad. So the three of us snapped up front row bleachers seats to go see them play.

The tickets were cheap and the view was amazing! We were feet from some of the action. When one of the cardinals was injured by running into the outfield wall, we even made it on the background of Sports Center! We had so much fun that we went the second night, as well. As it was Cinco De Mayo, we made a sign. We harassed Shane so much that just before the last inning, he tossed us a ball. I don't think I can ever sit anywhere but front row again.


A little back story: I met Shane when I was a mousy, tomboy 7th grader. He was an intimidating 8th grader who had just stolen my bouncy ball. Out of no where came a yell, "Shane! Leave my sister alone!". It was my impossibly cool and beautiful senior sister. "THAT's your sister?" was the incredulous reply from Shane as he handed me back my toy. I like to think that since then, my coolness has caught up to my sister enough that it's at least believable now that we are related, but I still rely on her to stick up for me every now and then.

Nashville!

In March (yeah, I've been a bit behind on the blogging), some of my friends from the Notre Dame alumni club and I took a road trip to Nashville. From the minute we walked onto Broadway, I was in love! The city is full of things to do, the streets are clean, and the sweet tea is that good.

On Friday we headed out to the main strip for some dinner and dancing. It's like a smaller, cleaner, safer version of Vegas.

On Saturday, we drove out to the Loveless Cafe where we had biscuits and grits for brunch. My favorite part though, was just sitting on the porch sipping sodas while waiting for our table. What else does one do in the South?

Dayna, Dee Dee, Kiki, Me, Tim (Kathleen's fella), Kathleen


After the Loveless Cafe, we drove through the suburb of Belle Meade (turns out this is Al Gore's hometown). It was one of the most beautiful neighborhoods I've ever been in. Old homes, stone walls, creeks, and trees everywhere.


Then we took a side trip to Greece to visit the Parthenon.
Okay, really, it was the full scale replica across from Vanderbilt. Still pretty impressive and it made for great photo taking opportunities!


Saturday evening was the Bluebird Cafe, a tiny hole in the wall where up and coming artists give performances.


On Sunday, we did a little sight seeing by the river before making the 5 hour drive home.
I enjoyed Nashville so much, I was scanning job opportunities there. Unfortunately, Nashville is big on music and healthcare, not so much on the defense and technology. It makes for a good road trip anyway!

More Adventures in Hoku Land

Sunday was my day to scrub the floors.

That made today Hoku's day to play in the mud.

St Patrick's Day Parade!

This past Saturday, downtown St. Louis celebrated St. Patrick's Day with the annual parade. The parade was started 40 years ago by a Notre Dame grad and now draws over 250,000 spectators. This year, I got to ride on the Notre Dame club float (last year, I accidentally slept through it). It was a great time waving to the crowds, dancing the Irish jig, and singing the fight song (over and over and over).