Weekend in Taos

This weekend, Justin and I headed up to Taos, NM for the weekend. We stayed at this great bed and breakfast called, "The Inn on La Loma Plaza" ......

....and Justin got in some awesome snowboarding (I'll have to take his word on that...I stayed behind. Somehow this didn't seem like the RIGHT time to try to learn. I think i'm going to need some moral support. Read as, someone who is just as uncoordinated and inexperienced to learn with me!!) I was able to walk around Taos and do some shopping and get my fill of the snow.

On Sunday, we went to see the Rio Grande gorge bridge. It was really cool. According to google, it has been in several movies ... Natural Born Killers, Twins, She's Having a Baby, Wild Hogs, and Terminator Salvation. It was really pretty.

Random Facts

With my last day of work rapidly approaching, people seem to be asking me more and more about where I will be living for the next couple of years. While I have NO IDEA what this island will have in store for me, google has helped me once again. Here are some random facts that I found. I apologize to the many people and websites that I plagiarized from!! I even found one site that said that there was approximately one vending machine for every seven people on the island. If that's true, that's a LOT of vending machines!!! Ha! Enjoy the random facts.

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Okinawa is a small tropical island in the Pacific Ocean, just south of mainland Japan and near Taiwan, measuring 485 square miles in size, 67 miles long and varying from 2 to 18 miles wide.

It’s climate is semi-tropical with an average annual temperature of 72 degrees with an average of 82 degrees in July and 61 degrees in January. Often referred to as, “Japan’s Hawaii”, the average annual rainfall is about 82.7 inches per year. Sugar cane, pineapples, bananas, papayas, guavas, mangoes, passion fruits, and other tropical fruits and plants are grown on Okinawa and its surrounding islands.

The average life expectancy of men is 76.3 years and women 83.7 years -- this was the longest not only in Japan, but also in the world. The people of Okinawa live on a diet of low-fat and low-salt foods that include tofu, seaweed and fish. This diet could be why they are some of the longest-lived people in the world

The area of 14 US bases are 233 square kilometres (90 sq mi), occupying 18% of the main island. Okinawa accounts for less than one percent of Japan's land, but hosts about two-thirds of the 40,000 American forces in the country.

Flowers

Not that he doesn't make me smile on a daily basis anyway, but look at the beautiful "just because" flowers Justin sent me today! (With chocolates I might add...) He's great. And not because he sends me flowers. But for a million other reasons. That just sparked me writing it in the blog. I'll leave it at that.

They do brighten my apartment up a lot, don't you think?? =)

Snow Day!!!

This week has been FREEZING here in Mississippi!!! As I type this right now it is a "balmy" 16 degrees. We aren't used to those types of temperatures! And we certainly aren't used to snow. Any chance of ice and snow and the state shuts down. Yesterday was our version of a snow day. The forecast called for snow, so the schools, businesses, and the Universities barricaded the doors. Except for the John C. Longest Student Health Center that is. Neither rain nor snow nor gloom of night.... (Well, maybe not gloom of night. 5:00pm and we are OUT OF HERE!! but you get the picture.) We pushed through the 15 snow flurries that the state got and suffered through the day. Here are some pictures of us playing in the snow.

Reality...

Reality comes in many forms...for me, it came in the form of a moving truck.

Not only did I get a moving truck today, I also got snow flurries...! I was hoping they would show up in the picture, but our Mississippi Blizzard was less than impressive by the rest of the country's standards.

So it looks like this is happening. It's really happening. =) For the next couple of weeks, i'll be camping in my living room, on my couch. Feel free to stop by and visit. Bring your own chair!

SURPRISE!!!

Last night was our "Annual Nurse's Christmas Party" at one of the local Mexican restaurants here in Starkville. To my surprise, it wasn't ACTUALLY our annual party, but a surprise going away party for your favorite blogger ... ME!!! It even included PRESENTS!! I got some excellent things...some things that will help me in my new adventure in learning to cook, and some things that will help me to always remember that i'm a true southerner at heart!!

I work with some of the sweetest people in the world. I can't imagine my life without them. Luckily, I won't have to because I know that no distance is going to keep us apart. (I can bug them from a world away!!)

Thanksgiving 2009 -- Albuquerque style.

I write this on my phone as I'm cruising at about 30,000 feet flying home, so please forgive any errors. It's a lot harder to type on a phone than you think!

Thanksgiving week in Albuquerque was great (entirely too short, but excellent none the less). It was actually very different for us in that usually we eat almost every meal out when we are together and this time we attempted to cook nearly every meal in. It was good. And fun. One night we made Thai green curry chicken that was delicious but so hot that I couldn't eat it. (granola bar dinner for me that night! Ha!)
One day we went to the commissary to do a little food shopping and Justin saw a package of scrapple in the freezer section. I'm not even exaggerating when I say I think it made his week! Don't know what scrapple is? Well, if you were like me and thought that everything left over after bacon and ham and pork chops made hot dogs, you were sadly mistaken... That's what scrapple is for. It's a lower food group. Here is the unaltered ingredient list with a photo to follow. The omlet on the side was MY breakfast because Justin loves me and knows I'm not eating that stuff ;) I will admit, I was brave enough to try a bite. So now I never have to do it again! (ingredients: Pork stock, Pork, Pork skin, Corn Meal, Pork livers, Wheat flour, Pork fat, Pork hearts, Salt, Spices)

Here is our thanksgiving dinner. Excluding the pumpkin pie that I slaved over. All that stirring was killer! Ha! We had a turkey breast that Justin grilled, some cranberry sauce, and some veggie-kabobs. And the bottle of wine was one that we picked up while we were in Italy and saved. It was nice.

That sums up the food portion of my trip. Not sure about you guys but it has made me hungry!!

I don't have any other pictures to post. We went out to the air base one day and Justin took me on a tour of his plane. I got to go inside it and sit in the cockpit and everything, but they had a "no picture" policy. I was bummed out. I looked really cool sitting in the seat playing co-pilot. You'll have to take my word for it I guess. I was amazed at how big the plane was and how many buttons and functions it has. And I know he only told me a small portion of it!! So much went over my head. It's a good thing there wasn't a quiz at the end!

I hope everyone else had a great thanksgiving as well!

Signing off from delta flight 1014
Sent from my iPhone