Down for the count

I came down with a bad cold yesterday, so it will be a short blog. Brian is in Michigan for Scott's wedding and I have been holding down the fort. I haven't been able to sleep for the past couple nights so I plan on laying on the couch today.

Bad news.... I've killed 4 roaches since Brian left (Well, actually, one was already dead). I don't know what to do anymore. I spend more time doing dishes and washing the floor, counters, stove and sink. And I know that every morning I will have to do a roach search in the kitchen/dining area. This morning I got one on the ceiling, one on the wall near the phone. Yesterday I had 2 on the counter near the stove.

Any tips would be appreciated....

Hail to the Victors!

Brian and Sarah: 1
Roaches and Ants: 0

Yesterday we had the exterminator visit. He was spraying around and then said, "you guys are going to leave for a few hours right?" No one told us that he was spraying inside everywhere and we would need to leave. So we grabbed our books and hit the pool (didn't have time to gather beach gear). Afterwards we drove into Chinatown for dinner. We had a great meal at the Little Village Noodle House. It was BYOB, so we picked up a bottle of wine at a nearby market. We really liked the restaurant, cute decor and great food. The best hot and sour soup I've had.

This morning, we were originally going to rent a kayak and paddle to this hidden/sunken island. But we decided to wait on that excursion when we realized that we would need to rent the kayak in a different town, along with the seat cushions, dry bag, etc., strap the kayak to the roof, hit the tides right and get back at a certain time. We want to check out the launching site first and ask around to see when is the best time to do the ride (its only a mile paddle).

So we went to the North Shore and beached it at the Three Tables (near Shark's Cove- where there are no sharks). Lots of people were snorkeling there so we will do that sometime. Then we had a late lunch at Giovanni's White Shrimp truck, where we split the spicy shrimp plate lunch. It was lava hot....but tasted good after some hours on the beach. Then we drove back to Haleiwa and picked up a shaved ice for dessert. We decided to drive to the end of the road on the northwest side of the island since we hadn't seen it yet. It was a beautiful drive, by the time we got to the end there was barely a house around. We saw one of the spots where they film Lost. Looked familiar, but I will have to rent the DVDs to brush up.

Its funny because the road is supposed to be finished (for over 10 years), but they stopped short of completing the wrap around by 3 miles. The pavement just ends and there is an off roading trail which we weren't going to try.

We got back and I realized that my spf forcefield had been infiltrated. I have a burned backside. I haven't burned my backside in awhile. So I'm quite irritated at myself. My sunscreen must have rubbed off on my beach chair and when I went to lay on my stomach on the cloudy day for an hour which included 10 min of sprinkling....I ended up with the burn.

So tonight when we were having our sweet corn (picked up from a road side stand in Hawiewa), I felt like Fival in "An American Tail". I was singing the "Somewhere, out there" song in my head while eating sweet corn knowing that everyone in Illinois is having good sweet corn now too.

We also had Opa from the grill with some of my mango salsa I made the other day (for the scallops on Sun). I am loving the fresh fruit and seafood. Although, the shellfish is not fresh caught. Turns out the water's too warm here for it. Also, no beaches have shells or shark teeth

Juju, you rode the bus through Nanakuli?!! I wouldn't do that anymore around here. But the bus still comes out there. No real waves this time a year, I'm sure that will change this winter.
I looked up the Pearl City Tavern online...bad news....it closed in 1993.

Tomorrow, we pick up my car. Thurs, Brian leaves for the weekend for his brother's wedding in Michigan.

Roaches on the Run

No new sitings of roaches, plenty of ants though. They usually come out at night and about every hour I come out and wage war against them. 24 hours to go until our exterminators. We have to pull out all our appliances and clean everything out under cabinets and around the floor of all closets and walls. Were starting to think we should get some sort of rent discount for this.

Yesterday, we went back to Makaha beach. We thought it would be crowded, especially since its a holiday weekend (Admittance day on Fri), but it wasn't. We set up camp and Brian visited the local plate lunch truck and found a nice meal of smoked brisket, corn and potato salad for $5.50. Turns out the ladies usually set up their truck in our hometown. After the day in the sun (no sun was able to penetrate my forcefield of spf 70), we stopped for some shave ice on the way back. Brian had a large strawberry, I had a small coconut with ice cream (they put a small scoop of ice cream in the bottom). It really hit the spot.

We grilled out burgers on the grill. We recorded the Olympics and I was so tired I fell asleep during the Phelps race. Brian had to rewind it for me twice because I feel asleep during the second watching as well!

This morning we went to the farmers market and then to the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet. Now, this is an experience. They have booths upon booths of shopping. Items were mainly flowered print sundresses, Aloha shirts (we call all this stuff Aloha gear), various salty snacks and Aloha decor. I know we'll be back later, but this time we picked up some Hawaiian salt, a dress for me, some snacks, and postcards (7 for $1). We also had our first Malasada (or is it a Masalada). Its a to die for....hot off the fryer....doughnut. We noticed they sell these 0ut of a lot of trucks around here. Its amazing how many lunch trucks are around everywhere. There's one every few blocks. I'm sure everyone has their favorite.

We may visit the hammock grove this afternoon or the pool.

Roach Alert!

Last night, I experienced the dark side of Hawaii. I killed 3 roaches in our kitchen. Even worse, all were a different size (several groups loose in the house?). The exterminator isn't coming until Monday. Already, we have been cleaning each and every dish as soon as we use it and taking out the trash daily. We still have the ants too. There is something seriously wrong about paying the money we are for our place and moving in with insects.

We went on a nice 3-4 mile walk this am. Then we did some grocery shopping (Costco and Don Quixotes) and found cushions for our teak loungers. Then we watched some golfers and listened to music. We walked to the small lagoon to see the turtles. Still no turtles. Just 3 more weddings. But we brought a couple cold beers and some cold apples and cheese and watched the sun set and then walked home. Had some sushi for dinner. I had Cherios for dessert and now we are watching the Olympics. Tomorrow I think we will go to the beach (probably the local one).

Last furniture for awhile

Yesterday we picked up our first beach umbrella and went to Makaha beach. Its one of our favorites and is about 10 miles away. We had lunch packed in our cooler and stayed for about 5 hours.

Then we painted our kitchen and one other living room wall, we are loving the color choice. We painted until about midnight. We watched more Olympics of course too. I meant to say the other day that our professional opinion is that some of those Chinese gymnasts are definitely not 15. They don't have the teeth for that age.

Also, we watched our favorite news story so far about Obama's visit to Hawaii. He had a fundraiser where they were serving heavy pupu's. Pupu is the word for appetizer here and its funny to hear the news say that Obama's rally will feature heavy pupu's.

This morning we set out to battle with the DMV. First Brian went to get his safety inspection. Then we failed for not having the front license plate. Then to the DMV for the plate. Later we will have to return to finish the inspection, and get that sticker. Then we have to take a written test and such when we go to get our new driver's license.

Then we went out for lunch to a place for Filipino food. We've never had this. And we NEVER will again. I ordered a soup that was pork, shrimp and lots of veggies. It tasted like boiled pork fat in dish water. I could barely eat enough to not be rude. Brian had a combo platter. He did much better with his food, but later admitted that we would not try that again. His plate featured calamari that was in a sauce that was a purple/red. He tried hard to get me to try it- ha ha ha. But at least he didn't order the pork in its own blood sauce. He also had these noodles that was pretty bad and some chicken that was all bone and unedibles and some fried pork fat something. We came home and I had a hot dog (much better). I thought of when Grampy and Ahmie were in China and went to McDonalds. Tomorrow Brian and I are getting some burger meat for the grill.

This afternoon, we picked up our last bit of furniture, but it was a big one. It is a 10 ft long microfiber sectional. The catch is the color....off white. The saving bit, the previous owner bought a 7 year stain removal policy where they come to your house and clean the couch and if they can't, they replace the cushion or couch. He transfered the policy to our name and its good for another 4 years. The couch is in mint condition. It's funny that we got a white couch after complaining about all the white in our townhouse, but it looks really nice with the paint color and other furniture.

Tonight we had a nice pasta salad I made (vast improvement from this afternoon) and we are watching the gymnastics and taking a day off from painting. Its pretty funny because we watch the Olympics on a 5-6 hour time delay from EST and they delay that from Bejing. So even though we are only 6 hours ahead of Bejing time, we see everything about 18 hours after it happens so we can't watch any news because it ruins it for us.

Tomorrow, we return the trailer and maybe we'll do something in Honolulu....

And Brian missed it.....

After dropping off our UHaul yesterday morning we stopped and picked some things at City Mill (local menards type store) and Home Depot. We then came back and Brian assembled the office bookshelf and hung the mirror for my new beautification station (there is a built in desk in the 2nd upstairs bathroom). We watched some Olympics and then went to the pool for a bit. I started reading Centennial.

Then we came back decided to walk to the beach to see the turtles. But when we got there, there were no turtles today. Bummer....But we watched the sunset and then had a beer at the hotels beach bar. However, it was pretty expensive so from now on, we'll bring our own.

I made dinner and then we started painting our dining room. It looks better already. Everything is so white in here (white walls, white carpet, white kitchen cabinets, white appliances, white blinds) we needed something different. By the time we were done it was nearly midnight. I went upstairs to read and Brian was watching some movie. About 45 min later the excitement began. The entire house started shaking and there was loud rumbling for about 5 secs. It was our first earthquake! I came running downstairs only to find Brian sound asleep on the couch. He thought I was a bit crazy until we read the news this morning and found there was a small earthquake about 10 miles off shore from Waianae (where Brian will be working, 15 miles north of here) of about a 3.o magnitude. It barely made the local news so it wasn't a big deal. Nothing tipped over or anything. If I hadn't found the news story, I would have convinced myself that a helicopter just got real close to us (since the lifeline goes past us about once a day). Brian is really disappointed that he missed it.

When I did a search for news about earthquakes, the last one in the news at all for when Bryan and Emily's honeymoon was canceled. So I don't think this happens very often.

Today, I hope to do some beaching or possibly go to the swap meet (sounds like a big flea market) at the Aloha Stadium. Then more painting tonight. We are trying to paint one area per night so we don't get bogged down in painting all day. Yesterday was the dining room, today will be the kitchen. Then the living room we will do in two sections.

Furniture Galore

Yesterday was a crazy furniture day. We rented a UHaul trailer-they actually had several available. We drove to Kaneohe in the morning to pick up the table and chairs (Windward side of island). Then back to unload. Then in the afternoon we went back out to pick up 2 bookcases (one in Honolulu, one in Millilani) and a couch (back in Kaneohe). We stopped for an amazing dinner in Kaneohe at a restaurant named Haleiwa Joe's. It had a spectacular view of the mountains and was open air. I had the crab stuffed Opa (very good). We got back after dark and unloaded. We met our neighbor, Kuzuki. She was really nice. Her husband is a police officer and his name is Frank (what are the chances?).

After driving all around the island yesterday, we are pretty happy with our location. Our townhouse is very nice and the proximity to the beach and pool cannot be beat. Also, is more humid and cloudy on the other side of the island and we have this great breeze and less humidity here.

This morning we returned the UHaul and picked up a ladder for painting and such. Now, Brian is starting to assemble one of the bookcases (other one was in one piece). This afternoon, we will beach it for a bit. We plan on painting for a few hours every night.

Great day for the Beach!

Today was our first real beach day and I'd normally say it was a perfect day for it...but here, everyday is the perfect beach day. Everyday its sunny with some clouds, no rain and a wonderful cool breeze.

We spent Sat driving to the other side of the island to pick up a used desk and some new teak lounge chairs. Then we checked out a different grocery store in a nearby town of Waipahu. Turns out, we've been shopping at the wrong store. Some things still pricey (pop), but the rest of the food was just maybe a 20% mark up. This is a vast improvement over the $8 carrots. We also found the local dollar type store, although it wasn't a dollar store. Good for basics like cleaning supplies. Got back to wait for our mattress and TV stand to be delivered. We had a lot of picking up to do and moving around some of our other things. Then we spent about an hour setting up the TV again.

By the end of the day, we decided to go out for dinner. We went to a place called the Hapa Grill. It was a casual restaurant with some local food. It was nice to be out without picking up furniture or supplies. Then we ran into a new obstacle...Brian's bank shut down his card. Since its a weekend, we have no access to cash until Monday. So a HUGE thank you to those (you know who you are) have made cash donations to our move. I brought it with as emergency funds and we need it. We just found a great table set with 8 chairs and we may need the cash for it to beat out other buyers.


This morning we went to the local farmers market and picked up some produce. Then we went to the beach (1st lagoon). We got a nice place on the sand in the shade and lounged for 4 hours with no sunburn thanks to the shade and my spf 70. The water is calm (no waves) and you can float really easily.

We just found out we got the table!!! Yea! $350 for a dark wood dining table, 8 chairs and removable leaf. Its a counter height table so we can use the extra chairs as bar stools.

We've also been enjoying the Olympics!

Wrong Again

Didn't make it to beach or pool today.....This morning we drove to Schofield's Barracks to pick up a headboard, frame, chest of drawers and nightstand for $300. The base was huge! It was interesting how that area (center of island) was cooler and was misting.

Then shopped around to determine local prices on furniture. Then the great wait for the cable company.....Our appt was at noon. At 7pm, we still had a cable person at the house trying to set us up. The first tech took until 3ish and couldn't get a clear signal on our cable. We waited until 5ish for the next tech and he had us set up by 7pm and wants to come back tomorrow am to double check that everything is okay.

So we spent basically the whole day waiting for cable.

After 7, we picked up a grill and ordered our mattress and tv stand. Then late night we watched the Hawaii travel channel (great channel) and collapsed boxes for garbage day tomorrow. We have 2 garbage days a week, which is nice.

Tomorrow 's agenda includes another nice long walk, hopefully a trip to the pool (can't go to beach because we are waiting for cable guy again and beach is 1/2 mile away), followed by a dinner out to commemorate a local special day 8/8/08. The number 8 is very lucky in Asian cultures, so tomorrow is a huge day for weddings, restaurants, etc around here.

After Amy clued me in to this, there was a big story on the local news about it.

Also, just so everyone knows, I kept my same cell # and we are 6 hours behind eastern time, 5 hours behind central time.

I will post pics soon, just picture me online on my beach chair with a small outdoor end table as my desk.....

Busy bees

This morning after my blogging, Brian and I went on about 4 mile walk. We walked to the marina and then past all the lagoons. Then we went shopping again (basically all day). First we went to get Brian some Hawaiian auto insurance. I left out a part of yesterday that included Brian going to get the mandated safety inspection on his car. In order to pass you need Hawaii no fault insurance (not Michigan no fault). So we had to update that. In addition in order to pass you have to have front and back license plates. In order to get Hawaii license plates you have to pass the inspection. This is going to be a run around between the DMV and Midas sometime next week. Then we went to Kmart in Kapolei and picked up a trash can and more sunscreen for me. Then we got back to watch them take the relocube away.

Then out again to Lowes, another Kmart and several furniture stores. We picked up some nicer casual plastic chairs for our 2nd floor balcony and Brian picked out a closet system to hang so there is room for all our clothes. Then back to the grocery store since we've been eating cheese and crackers and PB & J for 2 days. The cost of food has really gone up with the gas prices since April. We spent nearly $3 on the cheapest hot dog buns available! Tomatoes were $3.49 a lb and green peppers were $4.99 a pound. We just shopped around and found the most reasonably priced food. We will be getting our produce at the farmers market usually, but it isn't until Sunday. We came back around 6pm and I made salad and beef stir fry (good prices on beef here).

Then we found a used bedroom set on craig's list for $300 includes frame, headboard, 5 dresser drawer and nightstand. We are going to look at it tomorrow morning. The cable will be set up tomorrow afternoon with the real internet (not the internet I am borrowing from someone). I was exhausted with all the shopping today. Brian promised me pool time tomorrow, but I don't know since now we are going to get the bedroom set in the morning. But, I am looking forward to not sleeping on the aerobed much longer. We are shopping for a new mattress, couch and new or used tv stand and used dining table and bar stools. Possibly also a used or new rattan love seat for the ground floor lanai. Sounds like a lot, but we have a lot here already too.

Mom, today I saw a couple birds that I identified with my bird book: the red-vented bulbul, the red whiskered bulbul, and a hummingbird (which I haven't found in the book yet).

Signing off 'til tomorrow,

sar

Blog to Mom

Mom, I've been trying to reach you on your cell for a couple days.

Does anyone know if mom is out of town or something?

Another nearly 3 part story.....

Yesterday was crazy and by the end of the day I was looking like Goldie Hawn in Overboard when she is sitting on the chair at Kurt Russel's house with the boys going..."ba ba ba ba ba ba".

On Mon, we woke up at 3am and had a cab at 4am. We had 9 pieces of luggage all together. I had 3 checked and 2 carry ons, Brian had 2 checked and 2 carry ons. It was funny. All of our checked bags weighed over 50 lbs but one. We had one bag with the aero bed that weighed 66 lbs (our weight limit for first class was 70 lbs). Our first flight was an 1 1/2 hour tightly cramped flight. I was feeling horrible. It was like I had the worst hangover, but really I was just exhausted because we only had about 2 hours of sleep. But by the time we landed in ATL I was feeling better (it was 8am by then). Brian was about to hold out the motion sickness bag for me on that flight.

Then we had a 2 hour lay over in Atlanta. We were delayed a bit. But once we got on board....it was the best traveling experience of my life! We had the window and isle seat in the very back of first class. We could still recline well, but had no one behind us- which was nice. We got on and were reveling in our comfy seats and then the flight attendant came up to us to offer us a drink- while we were still waiting for everyone else to be seated! Brian asked if they had cranapple juice- and they did! Plus they asked him if he wanted that plain or with alcohol in it (he stuck with the plain)! We each had a pillow and blanket and our own little tvs that played movies and tv and little video games. We played hangman, memory and Brian played some mini golf game. We each had our own headsets and could watch different movies, tv shows, or listen to different radio. We had two meals. The first one we each ordered something different so we could try them both. Brian had some beef short ribs with mashed potatoes and zucchini and I had the rigatoni with marinara and eggplant. We each had a salad and had a small glass of wine with dinner. Brian's was better I think, but we shared. Then we rested a bit on the plane. We could also watch our plane's progress on a different screen on the mini tv. Before we landed we had turkey sandwiches with a special red pepper sauce on asiago cheese bread and more salad and a brownie (which we saved for later). I had endless diet cokes and hot tea on the plane, it was great! Brian did order a vodka tonic at one point and he said it was good. But we didn't have but those drinks since we were going to be driving/navigating upon our arrival.

We landed around 2pm local time, 7pm Illinois time, 8pm Michigan time. We waiting for all our luggage and loaded it up on a cart and got a shuttle to the rental car location. They upgraded us for free when they saw all our luggage and we were off. My GPS once again was saving us by guiding us to the grocery store on the way to our townhouse. Oh, I should say that when our plane was landing, there was a rainbow over the island- I think it was a sign. It was a beautiful drive, mist was all around the mountains on our way out of Honolulu. We stopped at the store and picked up some basics and headed to Ko Olina. We were so nervous!

We got to the main gate and picked up our keys and followed our map to our house......It was just like in the map! I couldn't believe it! The outside could use a fresh coat of paint I guess, but it has that "near the ocean air look". When we got out, I could smell the ocean on the air. We walked in and.........

It was amazing. We can't believe how beautiful our townhouse is! The pictures they sent us did not do it justice. We have beautiful vaulted ceilings and a huge kitchen. The two main lanais are much bigger than I expected. The master bath is great, we couldn't ask for more. We had a snack and then decided to walk to the beach. It was closer than we thought, maybe a half a mile.

First we went to one of the small lagoons. There we saw about 4 (maybe more) sea turtles feeding. They were in really shallow water and would flip around in the shallow waves and stick their heads up from time to time. The water was so shallow, you could see their shells- it was so cool! Then we walked along the first two main lagoons. They are very nice (touristy, but nice). We then walked back to our place around sunset. We were exhausted, but trying to stay up so that we would be able to time adjust.

That's when Brian dragged me to home depot and kmart. Kmart was good, because I got a pillow. We picked up a couple essentials and headed back. We crashed around 10ish.

This brings us to yesterday! We woke up at 5am local time. We had breakfast and checked Craig's list (an online site where you can find people selling used furniture locally). We wanted to beat the traffic in to Honolulu to pick up Brian's car. We just a little badly and ended up there 45 min early so we waited around and listed to the radio. Then we got the car. Its in one piece, but the battery was dead as a doornail. They jumped us and we were on our way. I will expand on this later, but there are some issues with his car now. We dropped off our rental and drove back to our neck of the woods. We stopped at Best Buy for Brian because he needed a new receiver (which is some electronic device that powers sound to your speakers from the tv or cd player). We then went to Costco. They have the busiest Costco I have every seen. We got a lifetime supply of TP, paper towels, garbage bags, laundry soap, etc. We also fell in love with their food selection. They have different and local food there. We picked up a half pound of freshly made poke (po-kee). That's raw tuna cubed with soy sauce and other seasoning and green onions and such. We also saw they had a ton of local fresh fish- Mahi, Tuna and Opa. We didn't get any this time. We raced back and arrived at the house about 30 min before our relocube was delivered. I have a video of it arriving. We then opened the doors of the cube and....nothing fell out on top of us. We started unloading. We unloaded half, took a break, then the other half.

We starting tearing through boxes like Christmas morning. Picture bubble wrap everywhere. It was exciting, because its been 3 weeks and we forgot what we even packed. Out of all the things in there we only had two mishaps!!!! The top of our set of drawers (wooden office drawers- not dresser) was dinged. And one glass broke. But my Tiffany lamp shade made it, our big mirrors- everything. Our boxes were sagged and disinigrating, all of our clothes smell like plastic or some chemical, but everything is okay. We thing that the exposure to heat, salt spray, something, really effects objects that aren't wrapped well. But we wrapped like champions! Thanks mom!

Then Brian got a call about a used coffee table we liked so we drove into Honolulu to pick up the $75 coffee table. Its a conversation piece (asian styled with mother of pearl inlayed in it). It has a few dings, but we can repair with paint. We continued to unpack until Brian set up the DVD player and I put together my ikea chair and chaise legs. We then watched part of pirates of the carribean. We knew that unless we had other entertainment we would continue to unpack and we needed a break. It has been exhausting. But here I am, up at 6am (doing better I guess). Brian is still asleep and I was going to make coffee, but I can't find the carafe (even though I labeled that box specifically). There is only one bad part about our townhouse.... we have a lot of road noise. I think the sound bounces off the mountain across the street. But we still love our location because we get to watch the golfers and we have a great breeze on our lanais.

Who knows what we will do today....I will keep you updated....Sar

ALOHA

I will follow with more details of our adventure tomorrow. But we have arrived! Excuse any typing errors because we are running on 24 hours with no sleep. We are trying to stay awake for another hour so that we can adjust to the time.

Our flight was great, our townhouse is awesome! Its bigger than we pictured. We watched some golfers play from our lanai, took a walk to the beach (about a half mile away) and watched some sea turtles eating near the shore. Just an amazing experience.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the details of our travels :)

What?! The Truck is for Today?!

Friday morning, we get up and are deciding what to do for the day. Its about 9:30am and I decide to confirm our moving truck rental for Sat.......only to discover that it's actually reserved for Friday. You should have seen us start running around! We ran around like mad getting things ready to pack (for storage and for donation). We picked up the truck by 10:30. We loaded up the bed, mattresses, dining table, and my beautification station (desk with mirror used as my vanity). We dropped off and fit everything in our storage unit with room to spare. Then we dropped off our old mattress, dining table and some other things for St. Vincint's (where they have the poorest selection of goods for people in the area). We returned the truck by 12:30. But at least we are done with that! Now, we just have a few little items to put in the storage unit and suitcases to pack.

Last night, we went to a nice dinner with Brian's parents and then met Amy and Gregg for a drink. For those following the story, we still don't know why Marianne has a baby Bjorn (very nice baby carrier for strapping your baby to your body). Maybe she carries groceries in it since no one in the family has any babies.

We have to drop off our internet modem and cable box this afternoon, so Panera will be my only internet connection after today. Brian's paycheck cleared so we are set for him to exit his job. Today, I am getting my spray tan and we hope to go see the batman movie on the IMAX.

Brian's Jeep arrived in the port yesterday (fri) and they hold it for 4 business days free of charge. So we will pick it up on Tues morning, the pod is delivered Tues afternoon and our cable/internet will be set up on Thurs afternoon (evening for you folks).

This move has been tough, so much to coordinate! But Monday afternoon, when we check into our townhouse and walk to the beach will hopefully make it all worth it!

Relocube arrival!!

Great news! Our relocube is in the Honolulu port! We are having it delivered on Tues afternoon. Today was Brian's last day of work for 6 weeks. It hasn't sunk in yet. Here is the update on the payment saga for those following.

He got the check today for everything minus the time we spent over the 4th of July. Of course, Dr. D made $230 on that time, we made nothing. First Dr. D "forgot the checkbook", then he got it at lunch, then he "forgot how much he had to write it for", then Brian told him the salary and said that we needed to figure out the on call time. Then when Brian turned his back, Dr. D wrote the check for the amount without the on call money. Then, of course, he only brought one check so he couldn't fix the problem (despite the fact that his bank is in the same building as him).

In the grand scheme of it all, the $230 is not that big of a deal, just another disappointment in this pathetic business owner. So Brian went to cash the check at Dr. D's bank. They would only give him some cash and most of it in a Cashier's check. Then we drove to Brian's bank to deposit the cashier's check. We told the whole saga to the teller and she advised us to wait for the cashier's check to show up in the account before he quits. Now, by coincidence, the bank is updating their computer system and the money may be delayed. Hopefully, the money will be there tomorrow, but we may have to wait until next week. This just gives Dr. D more time in case he gets wind of the situation and cancels the check.

My car was picked up last night. I hope it arrives in one piece. Brian's car is on the boat and due to arrive soon. I will keep updating this week until Sat/Sun when we lose out internet service here.

Sar

Tooth update

I was wrong about my teeth being okay. Turns out, I wasn't paying attention to the right area. I actually chipped my central and lateral incisor (top front teeth). It was very, very minor. But, being a dentist and dating a dentist...I got some primo care. Brian just adjusted the shape of my teeth (very minor). He's been wanting to do it for years, so now that I had a chip we had a reason to do it. They look great! We then put a sealer on it so they aren't sensitive. Plus, the funny part is that now I can't bite my nails because of the way my teeth fit together. Well, I guess I could if I tried, but its harder now. So I'm getting great teeth and nails!!!

Of course, no one else would notice the difference.

We've continued packing today and cleaning out our fridge. We still have a lot of food from the party. We cleaned and vacuumed my car. Its getting picked up today. We are getting a rental car until Sun. We are borrowing some luggage from the Wiedemer's since Brian only has one suitcase. Tomorrow I am finishing out my sal0n gift card that I got for xmas and having a manicure/pedicure. Afterwards, Brian and I are having a nice dinner at a the Bonefish grill (I received a gift card from the Michigan dental assoc at graduation). And on Sat....Lisa got me a gift card for a spray tan so that I would blend in with the locals. I'm so excited to get my fake tan. She told me that they do body contouring with it. Hopefully, I can get some extra ab muscles!

I'll keep everyone updated. We have internet until Sat. Then, on Oahu, we are set to have our internet set up on Thurs (we are trying to get it moved up to tues/weds). Kapolei is calling for rain on Tues/Thurs next week. Maybe it will be a bit cooler for emptying the pod.

Hope all is well!

sar

Great Party!

Part One: Brian's lung tests went well. They just found residual infection and we have some new prescriptions. What a relief that there isn't anything for us to really worry about! He was feeling not so great on Fri night after the medications wore off. But on Sat, he was fine.

Part Two: Our outdoor party went well. Thank you to all who could come. We have tons of food left over. This is nice, because we were determined not to buy more groceries before we left next week and I was really stumped as to how to use canned potatoes, cranberry sauce, creamed corn and coconut milk in a recipe.

All the sudden, Brian and I realized it was 3:30 am and we picked up and went to bed. Of course, after bringing in the furniture, Brian went to close the sliding glass door as I went to move the "locking board" and I got hit in the mandible with the door. My teeth hit together pretty hard, and Brian was worried that I had fractured my lower canine. But, my teeth don't hurt today so I'm out of the woods. This is good, since poor Brian would have never lived it down if I had a damaged tooth!

Yesterday, we recovered from the party and proceeded to panic about the move. Just lots to take care of this week! But I'm trying to sneek in a visit to the Degas exhibit in town and we want to go to the IMAX batman movie too.

Relocube send off

Well- we made it through the packing of the relocube! It is sitting in the driveway ready for pick up. I will post some pictures of it. It is 6ft x 7ft and 8ft tall.

Mom and I were packing masters for 3 days. We packed and packed. We had boxes, tape, bubble wrap, shrink wrap, utility blankets, and lots of bedding and clothes for padding. We went through 6 rolls of tape, at least 30 boxes, and about 800 square feet of bubble wrap!

In addition to the boxes, we fit in a chaise lounge, treadmill, two small end tables, Brian's bike, a 50 inch tv, a two seater outdoor table and chairs, a 6ft x 4 ft mirror, and a ikea chair with footstool and a kind of tall, narrow drawer tower...amongst other items. It was amazing!

We finished filled the entire thing in less than 2 hours. Then we have spent every minute since then finding more tiny things to cram in there. We must have 10 "last item in the cube" pictures!

They better pick it up soon, before we find something else! I am on my way to DeKalb today for my farewell tour.

The cube should arrive a couple days before we arrive in Honolulu.

Jeep Gone

Yesterday, Brian's Jeep was picked up and is on its way to LA to be boarded on a boat for Honolulu. It was very exciting. The truck was driven by a couple who have been doing this for 31 years. That's right, riding in a truck together 6 days a week for 31 years. That is one great marriage! Their truck was a 2001 and it had 1, 144,000 miles on it. Can you imagine that many miles?! It was pretty cool.

The house here is in shambles! We have boxes and packing tape everywhere and no pictures on the walls. We have stacks of stuff for the relocube, storage and I don't know what everywhere.

We are starting to get really excited about the trip. I keep looking at more and more pictures of Ko Olina and it looks really fun.

Brian had a man weekend in Higgins lake this past weekend and I rented a ton of girl movies and had a facial and read my book. I also visited Karen and Jim in ann arbor.

Brian took my car to work this morning and my mom should be arriving this afternoon. But, essentially, I don't have a car for awhile since Brian needs it to get to work.

I'll post some pictures of the truck that took Brian's jeep soon.

Not much going on

I don't have a lot to post about, but I wanted to post anyway. Brian and I are just organizing things to start packing. We're putting things in different rooms based on if they are going or storing.

Brian's still coughing. He's not getting better so we scheduled his CT and bronchoscope for the 25th. He's not looking forward to that. But we are both tired of the 8 week cough and the wheezing. The medication he's taking now is making him jittery, so that's great...

Annie may be having her baby tonight or tomorrow, I am very excited.

Other than that, we are going to watch a movie and try to get some rest.

Tomorrow, more packing....

Forgot to add

Go to

www.kapolei.com

and click on the watch video link at the top to see a video about the creation of the city we are moving to.

Its about 5-10 min long, you may have to turn the sound up.

Movin on West!

To the tune of the "Jeffersons"...

We're movin on out, to the west side, to a delux townhouse, near the beach! we're movin on up. To the west side. We finally got a piece of the pie!

Sorry for the delay. We have our flights, our relocube booked and hopefully our townhouse secured (haven't hear back since we sent the check). Our flights are on Aug 4th.

We are excited between the times that we are anxious. We hope it all works out. But as of right now, I have no job and Brian is working Sat's. I have an ad coming out in the Hawaii dental journal next month and hopefully I will get some hits from it.

I have been having a hard time being excited because I will have such a hard time saying goodbye. I hate goodbye's, I'm always a mess. Even if its just for a couple weeks, I'm tearing up. So if anyone has any tips for me to make it easier, I am ready for suggestions.

As of now, I am still waiting on the arrival of my new cousin. Andrea was due on the 4th, but no baby girl yet. We are all waiting, not so patiently for her arrival.

My dream is to scrap together enough money to get a video camera so I can make DVDs of some of our adventures to send to friends/family or post on this blog. Basically, its going to be a recruiting tool to encourage visitors.

We had a great 4th of July, complete with fireworks, a pig roast, and some boating. Half of the time we were at Gull Lake with Brian's parents and Aunt Judy. Judy beat us at scrabble again. Man, she's good! But so fun to play with! And we should welcome her to my blog since I gave her the address. Part 2 of the weekend was a pig roast at our friends' house in greenville on their lake. We saw fireworks at both and had plenty of great food and company.

Thanks for everyone's support!

Maybe swinging up again

This morning we got some unsettling news followed by better news this afternoon. Brian received an email about his contract this morning saying that they want him to work on M, W, Th, Sat. Which would be bad since we would never have a 2 day weekend to travel to other islands and just relax. I went to work with Brian today and watched the master work. It was nice to be around teeth again.

Then this afternoon, we received the elusive contract. They didn't cut his pay, unless the salary will be pro-rated for 4 days a week. But the great part is they put in some relocation reimbursement, which really helps! We are waiting to hear back about the working Sat deal. We were surprised because when Brian interviewed, they said that they weren't open on Sat's.

We will get the final word on the move in a couple days.....

I got a GREAT fortune in my fortune cookie last night......"New work opportunities will arise shortly"......

I spent the day yesterday putting my name out there some more. I called all the dental supply reps (they helped Brian find his job) and talked to them. Then, with my stolen phone book from Oahu, I started calling dentists in my area. I will continue with my search on Mon. I also sent one last pleading email to the original Dr. detailing why I think adding the chair to her office would help her achieve her goals of working less hours (faster training for me if we each have chairs and work side by side) and increasing value of her practice (so she can sell). It was a last ditch effort. Brian and I spent quite a bit of time composing it so it wouldn't sound pushy. Cross your fingers.

Tonight, we are going out for a drink to celebrate our possible good news. And I am excited because I've been saving this great Marilyn Monroe type white dress for the occasion.

Another Hang up

Well, we have some more bad news. I spoke with the woman I want to work with in Kapolei and she is not ready to put in an additional chair to her practice. This is a big problem. She doesn't want to put the investment into her practice because she wants to sell and thinks that someone may only want 2 chairs in the practice.

This is, in dental terms, not remotely practical. A dentist could work in the chair and pay off the dollar investment the chair in a month. Two months if the work was part time. I am going to talk with her again, but I am in a dire situation now.

I made the drastic mistake of putting my eggs in this one basket and now I need to find someone who will consider hiring me without meeting me face to face.

We have to mail the downpayment for the condo on monday in order to hold it and neither of us know how much money we will be making or if I will be working.

Wish me luck in this additional challenge. I have to admitt, Brian and I can't think of anything that we have done that has taken this work and has had so much uncertainty. There is a reason that people don't do this very often!

Just Kidding!

Yesterday, we received some disappointing news. We are still waiting on info for Brian's contract. The CFO hasn't even looked at it. We have to have a confirmation of his salary- pronto! Basically, they told us to just "hang in there". Which is ridiculous considering they have had Brian's application for weeks. In addition, what have they been able to accomplish since April when we visited? I'm not sure. The residents that Brian will be teaching will have arrived by next week. However, there is no one contracted to teach them until Brian starts work. Brian's contract is more important to nail down than mine because he can only get a community service license, so there are few places he can work. Whereas, I can work in any dental office.

Brian's job is supposed to be starting (and mine too hopefully) around the end of Aug. In order to start then we desperately want to arrive the first week of Aug so that we can pick up some furniture and settle in before starting. Our cars and relocube take 3-4 weeks to arrive and need 2 weeks notice for pick up. We basically need the contract to be completed by July 1st in order to be able to start work at the end of Aug.

Now, some will say...push it back a month. Well.....our renters need to move in and we have found our dream townhouse that we want to put a downpayment on before someone else gets it.

The townhouse is in Ko Olina Resort, and is part of the Coconut Plantation gated community. It has a sandy bottom pool. Its located on hole #13 (my lucky number) on the Ted Robinson golf course which is a part of the LGPA tour. So we could watch the golfers from our lanai. This style townhouse has been going for about $3-500 more a month than the price we were offered. We think this is because they want to get someone in it who will stay and who will be good tennants.

We know this place sounds ritzy, but, if we are going to spend so much of our income on housing, we'd like to have something spectacular and this one is (by Hawaii's standards). Its about 1800 sq feet which is about 400 more sq feet than we thought we'd be able to afford. There are 3 full baths and 3 bedrooms. I know if this townhouse doesn't work out due to the contract, we will find another. But now, we are sooo excited about this one, we can hardly stand it. Double sinks in the bathroom, granite counters, walk in closets....sounds like heaven!

In addition, if we can get the contract info by the 1st, we will be packing the relocube around the 17th of July. We will be seeing how much we can stuff in there. We have a practice space set up in the basement mapped out to size, for practice. Once the cube is here, we have 3 days to fill it with whatever earthly belongings we will want for 2 years.

Biggest day

Today is Erin's 21st birthday!!! I was hoping to celebrate with her on the date, but we had to post pone due to our crazy Hawaii stuff.

Today, I will be discussing my contract with Dr. Masuda. Brian is getting his finalized offer today....and we are hopefully, going to be approved for an amazing townhouse in Ko Olina. We are hoping the owners drop their price by a bit for us. So this is the day of no return.....(at least for a year).

The jeep may be shipping out July 14th and the Relocube (with whatever furniture and belongings can fit into 6 x 7x 8 ft) will go around the 19th. Then the Alero would ship Aug 2nd (ish). By the way, I just noticed today that my original license plate "the 707"....the zip code for where we are living is 96....707.

Yesterday, the couple came to look at the house and loved it! They seem like the perfect family to live here. They have a 1 year old, and 4 year old girls and the dad is a Mr. Mom, while mom is doing her residency at the hospital in pediatrics. The 4 year old raced into the house yesterday and asked, "where's the ballet barre?". She started taking ballet last year.

We also found a storage center for only 55$ a month for 5 x 10 feet of space, which is perfect for us, since we are leaving some of our furniture at the house. Of course, the pink chairs and such will be lovingly packed in storage awaiting my return. Its a very nice brand new storage center that just opened up last week, and its about a mile from the house.

I will ask if someone will take my photos and a blanket that eloise made for me. I'm also trying to figure out how I'm going to ship Gramsbear...luggage or relocube? Hmmm...maybe carry on luggage.

PS- Grampy, I tried printing my blog today to see how it works. I just went to the top where it says file and clicked on file and then clicked on print. When mine came out, the printer had reversed the colors automatically so that it is white paper with grey lettering (would be nicer if it was black). It printed the last two postings along with the picture of Brian and I on the side.
See if it works for you.

Truckin'

We are truckin' along in our moving plans. We are waiting until tomorrow to hear back for my job, and until Monday to hear about Brian's. We found potential renters for our house in GR. Its a family of 4 with two young girls aged 1 and 4 (I think the 4 year old may enjoy my ballet barre). They are coming to look on Sun pm, but are very interested. The wife is a pediatric resident and the dad is Mr. Mom. Hopefully, it will work out.

We are pursuing 3 different Ko Olina units. One isn't ready until Sept, so it probably won't work out. The other two are both nice and we are debating between the two. Although, I just was comparing the pictures with the (Coconut) floorplan of one of them and caught the realtor in a mistake. He says its one model, but it doesn't match up with the floorplan. The pictures are from a larger model. But what's funny is that we would probably prefer the smaller model whose floorplan he provided because it has a nicer lanai. We really don't need the extra indoor space, but we would like the extra outdoor space. The other property (Kai) is consistent with the pics. The Coconut condo could be 1550 sq feet or 1830 sq feet depending on the model. The Kai is 1625 sq feet. The Coconut would have a nice view of tee #13 on the golf course. The Kai would have a nice view of the neighbors. The Kai is less $, but we are trying to bargain down the Coconut. Either way, we would be happy...especially me because this process is a lot of work.

I will be coming to DeKalb on Sun night or Mon am, but I can't stay but a couple days because so much is happening next week with our contracts. Once we confirm our contracts we need to pick our living place, put down and payment, book our moving companies and flights, etc. I am in charge of those items, so I will have to get back to book it all. I'll be back in town in July sometime when the flurry of reservations dies down.

I am looking for any able bodied packers who want to help. I'm having flash backs to my famous role as the Little Red Hen...."Who will come and help me, who will be so kind? Who will come and help me? Its won't take too much time."

In addition, I will be dropping off portions of my winter wardrobe at various places so if I visit in the winter months I will have winter wear available.

Oh, and our internet is out until tomorrow night, so I am frequenting Panera to have access.

Licensing and Ko Olina

We had quite a plan today. We went to the state licensing building in Lansing to help Brian get his license processed. By driving it there in person, we saved about 3-4 weeks of processing. We stopped at his parents house to eat our take out lunch and for Brian to see the dog for an hour.

On a brighter note, we found another realtor with a good price on a place we like in Ko Olina. We are working on getting more details. We'll see how this proceeds. We have been dealing with about 5 different realtors, so its all confusing. There are about 6 different parts of Ko Olina, each part has 3-8 different floorplans. The floorplans aren't posted for everyone to see, so we have to get each floorplan from the realtor.

Working for Paradise

The past couple days have been more of the same. Lots of calls, emails, mailings and such. We are narrowing down our search for housing. There's one that we are leaning toward. Its the 3 bed/3 bath at Ko Olina Kai. Its 1625 square feet which is pretty big for the area. Its a 2 story townhouse with and upstairs and downstairs lanai. I will feel much better about this whole process once we put a down payment on a place to live. Then we can have an address and it makes everything sooo much easier. I'm having a hard time even joining the Hawaii Dental Assoc. (to place an ad in the journal for a job) without an address. In addition, I want HDA access so I can start to look into disability insurance and med insurance for when mine expires in late Aug.

Yesterday, I ended up driving to Howell (1.5 hours each way) to get to my bank since there are no branches/ATMs any closer. I'm just waiting for anything else to clear and then I will close out the account.

I don't know if anyone watched "Celebrity Circus" last night, but it is my new favorite crap TV show. What could be better than watching washed up celebrities as carnies? Katelyn should watch especially, since her career aptitude test said she should be a circus performer. I, of course, was supposed to be a nut farmer. Maybe I'll look into those Macadamia nut farms in Hawaii........

Today, I am going to go to either the Holland or Grand Haven beach park in the morning. Then, this afternoon, I am working on my job search (since Hawaii is 6 hours behind, I have to wait until 3pm before calling people). Wish me luck......

The Search Continues

Wow! This moving thing is a lot of work. Brian has been filling out the most horrible forms for his community service license. It involves official copies of board scores, NERB scores, diplomas, licenses, a self query (have no idea what that is), it had to be notorized. And now we have to go to Lansing to get someone to fill out a form verifying his Michigan license (which is a redundant). The Lansing gov personnel told us that it will take 6 weeks to process if we mail the verification form, but if we bring it in person it will only take 3 weeks. She said that the building is really big and that it takes 3 weeks to get from the mail room to her desk......right......



Then we still have to mail it to Hawaii and wait for that to process. In the mean time, I have been doing hours of research on shipping and housing. Turns out a lot of car transportation companies have a bad reputation, so I am working on another set of quotes from another 15 companies. I'm also looking into other companies to ship our belongings, but we did this before and no one could beat the Relocube price.



I talked about Ko Olina in my last post. We have been in contact with some owners and some realtors. There's one that I am IN LOVE with, but its just out of our price range. Its about $200 a month out of our range. That would be about $2,400 a year. Sounds like not a big deal for a couple dentists, but we are worried about staying afloat the first couple months as we get started in our jobs (I still need another part time job), especially if we can't find anyone to rent this Michigan house. But I still love that townhouse. It has plenty of room for visitors (which I really want, so that people can stay comfortably with us as we go to work) It has 2 bed and bath upstairs and an extra bed and bath on the main floor for anyone who doesn't want to have to go up and down stairs (grandparents, mom, Brian's dad, Brian's aunt Judy, etc.) But I am waiting this afternoon to hear back from another realtor who has some lower prices.

We are also nervous because we found out that they are still negotiating the budget at Brian's place of work so his salary could change (which would be very very bad). So we are waiting for a confirmation on salary before we can do much more. Our move date could get pushed back to beginning of Sept depending on all this.

In the mean time, I have no money and I only have a Hawaii license. My Michigan license isn't set to come in for another few weeks. I'm pretty close to deciding to wait tables.....I can see it now....

Customer: "Miss, could you get me a napkin."
Sarah: "Actually, I usually go by Dr. Webb."

It would be funny :)

Movin to paradise

Step 3...Hawaii update.

I got my Hawaii license. Brian got his job offer. It is full speed ahead to Hawaii. So we are FREAKING OUT. We thought it would be super exciting. But in reality we are super nervous. We have so much to do. I need a narcotic license. Brian needs all of his licensing filled out. We have to rent this house, store furniture, ship cars, and fit whatever earthly belongings we want into a 6 x 7 x 8 relocube (like pods). Each relocube is over 3K so most things would be cheaper to buy again than ship. And don't ask us about shipping the cars. We've had sooo many people try to explain to us that we should sell our cars. Lets put this to rest. We have been researching this for a year, believe me, we have THOROUGHLY investigated all options and this is the best for us. Believe me, we know more about moving to Hawaii than most.

Currently, we are looking into moving into Ko Olina. Its a resorty type complex in Kapolei. It would be extremely convenient. Its gated, very safe, and has lots of amenities. We think it will be the best option for us. The convenience of walking to one of four private beaches, have tennis courts, pools, and all sorts of walking paths. It will be like living in a vacation condo. We are focusing on the townhouses and hope to find one we can afford with room for visitors. I saw one with 3 bedr, 3 full bath that I am in love with. We are calling about it today. I have my heart set on it, but I know the chances of us getting it are slim since there is so much competition for housing. I am going to go enjoy my Sunday now..... I'll keep the updates coming.

Cirque Du Wiedemer

So, the wedding was the most amazing thing ever. We all loaded onto "The Lookout", a huge catameran. The ceremony was conducted by Brian's aunt BJ who is an ordained minister. It was nice, personal and short (perfect). Then we had wine and cheese and such and boated around for maybe 45 min. Then we pulled into the dock to the site of the reception. Everyone was waiting for us. There were people on stilts, jugglers, balloon makers, pirates, everything. There was 5 tents. the main tent housed the live salsa band, dance floor, couch and chair lounge, the main bar, wedding cake and some of the buffet. Then there was the hookah tent with 4 different flavors and it was filled with pillows, and silk on the ground. There was the photo booth tent with one of those photo booths from the carnival with costumes- That was a blast! There was a tent with mojitos (tropical drinks) and another food tent with tables for eating. Food was eclectic. Everything from sushi to mini cheeseburgers. Including soft shell crab, chocolate fondu, jambalaya, salad, chicken satay. The music was fun with the salsa band. Then tents were beautiful complete with custom made metal life size figures. Lots of local artists contributed to the event. Then there was a show between the tents a couple hours in for the belly dancers with flaming batons and another guy who threw around these fire lit torches. Then we all took the catamaran back to the hotel. It was an amazing night (as you can see from the photos).

WOW- soo many stories...

I have so much to share that I will have to break it up into a couple posts...There are three stages... Stage 1- I now live with a boy...Stage 2- Cirque du Soilei wedding in North Carolina....Stage 3- Hawaii update.

Stage 1: I now live with a boy

Brian and I went through a LONG day of UHaul disasters including 4 hours of driving all over Washtenaw county trying to find a UHaul trailer which I had already reserved. To make a long story short, we drove to 4 different locations all 20-40 miles apart before being able to pick up a trailer. Then after doing this for 4 hours, we then still had to pack and move. We rolled into GR with the last of my Ann Arbor life at 9pm on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. We unloaded and then ordered Chinese food. We were almost still speaking to each other.

I, personally, am the worst mover of all time. The entire experience stresses me out and makes me a crazy person. Brian has graciously moved around and pitched most of his belongings to make space for me. In addition, he can't find anything in the kitchen since I rearranged it entirely. He can now find the ziplock bags, but that's about it.

We then threw our belongings in the car to go camping the next day (we needed a break from the whole moving thing). That was a good time. Then we spent the rest of the weekend unpacking and such. We can then fast forward to.....

Stage 2: The Circus wedding

We spent Weds night at my apartment- my last night as a single girl in Ann Arbor. We flew into New Bern, NC. We ended up with a bright red clown car (smallest car I've ever seen). But we like the gas milage and the EZ parking. I discovered that New Bern is the birthplace of Pepsi Cola (my uncle would be happy). We then rested and then went to Brian's sister's (Kristin) house for a BBQ. They have the most amazing bungalo (The song Grampy and Ahmie always sing comes to mind..."We'll build a bungalo big enough for 2, big enough for 2 my darling, big enough for 1,2, 3, 4....") They have completely customized and redone this house for the past 4-5 years and it is amazing. Every cabinet is custom built in, they have a murphy bed in the guest room, and they sleep in the loft upstairs. It is truely beautiful-definitely should be in a magazine. They have a great backyard complete with fire pit and seating. We had shish kebabs of steak, chicken and shrimp. It was the best shrimp I've ever had. Fresh shrimp, right off the charcoal grill. Then I was the DD, so I got to drive all the crazy Wiedemer (and partners) to the hotel. The next day included picking up several things for the wedding and driving to Beaufort, NC. Beaufort is an adorable town right on the water. We stayed at a great hotel, the Inlet Inn. You could call and they would deliver continental breakfast to your room at no charge. We looked right over the docks. We were able to spend a couple hours at Atlantic Beach (found only 1 shark tooth since the tide was in). Then we had the rehearsal dinner. It was in walking distance to the hotel. We sat outside, but they decided to cram about 35-40 of us on this long table. We were so packed in that you couldn't move your arms. Brian and I would take turns cutting each others food. One would hold the knife, one the fork. Luckily, the meal was a tappas style dinner not requiring much cutting. We had bread and salad followed by.....steak kebabs, crab cakes, oysters (which I liked), seared tuna, seaweed salad, squid, crab dip and pita, bacon wrapped scollops, bruschetta, and a chocolate mousse type cheesecake for dessert. With plenty of champagne, and local wine- it was a great meal. Also, Kristin and Pete did this really nice thing, where they went down the table and introduced us one at a time and said something nice about each person. It was a great way to get to know everyone, and very personal. Us "kids" then hit some local watering holes around town. I was a hit in my yellow fit and flare cap sleeved sun dress. Wow....I need a break before I get to the actual wedding and move to stage 3...

I will post this and finish later this afternoon.

Another Bummer of a Weekend

Well, it was another bummer of a weekend for Brian and I. Friday, I was still feeling sick and fell asleep early, only to sleep 13 hours. Then on Sat morning, Brian pinched a nerve in his neck and became a robot (moving like a robot) for the weekend. Yesterday, we found the Korean grocery strore in Grand Rapids so that we could make some real food. Then I spent 3 hours making 86 dumplings. It was nice, because I wanted to do something that required little thought or moving about.

This is a busy week, we have Brian's birthday on Weds, and we are moving my big furniture on Friday. Then next week we have Kristin's wedding in North Carolina.

I found a wrinkle in my diploma so I decided to order another one. I am going to have both framed. Then I have one for work and one for home. Obviously the biggest one will be at home to compete with Brian's diploma.

Back in Business

Sorry for the long lag since I've posted. After graduation, Brian and I came down with the flu. We've been out of commission for over a week now. It was by far the worst bug we've ever had. Its a good thing his couch is big enough for the both of us.

We went through at least 5 boxes of kleenex and we are still going. But we started antibiotics this Sun since Brian's became a sinus infection and my ears were becoming a real problem. Brian's back at work, but I'm still recovering.

Then last night, just for fun I decided to clog the garbage disposal so that the water wouldn't drain. So there we are in our full sinus congestion glory taking apart the garbage disposal with water flooding all over the place. But somehow, we figured it out and cleaned it all up. There should be some sort of home owner class that people can take at a community college to teach you how to fix some of the random things that happen when you own a house.

I have not worked on my job hunt since I've been sick, so no news there.

I unrolled my dipolma yesterday, only to find a few distinct dents and that it is much smaller that Brian's. I am going to order a new one without the dents. And I will have to do some serious matting to make my diploma equal (or bigger) than his. One problem is that mine is vertical and his is horizontal. I will be working on that.

I hope to be well enough to go to Andrea's baby shower, but still today, I am too sick to drive that far.

Hopefully, I will be on the mend soon

Booo! Michigan!

Well, here I am back in Michigan. Wow, is it cold! Its amazing how quickly I can get used to 84 degrees everyday. I'm posting this around midnight, which means I haven't adjusted to the time change yet. Plus, I got a bit hooked on coffee (Kona coffee) this trip, so I've been having more caffiene than usual.

Our last day was great. I went on an official interview. There were some things I liked about the office, some things I did not. Which is probably true of most places. Then Brian (my knight in shining armour) drove me around town and I stopped at every office I could find.

Then I met Dr. Masuda. She is great! She has a cute office in Kapolei, which is a great location about 30 min from Brian's job and in a really nice safe area. It is growing leaps and bounds. They have a Home Depot and will have a Target next March. They have a movie theatre and a farmer's market so we like the town a lot.

Dr. Masuda spoke with me for awhile, she's from Wisconsin and moved to Hawaii around 10 years ago. She wants to cut back her hours and has room to add an additional chair. She was so nice to talk to and I really felt a connection with her. I think we could work together really well. She is looking for part time right now, but I just emailed her and I hope I can persuade her to want to work with me. She even does laser endo (root canals). Brian and I have no idea what that is, but I sure sounds cool.

There are several nice housing areas in Kapolei and near by they have a swanky resort/gated community called Ko Olina. It has its own private beach, tennis courts, golf, restaurant, etc. We are looking into living there even if its a bit cheesy since its gated. Brian and I figured it would be safe and easy for us to walk around and enjoy the beach after work without driving anywhere. Plus, he can continue to beat me at tennis.

We enjoyed our last evening of Waikiki and of course had our last margarita at Cha Cha Cha's before heading to sleep. It sure seemed cold in Michigan after 24 hours of traveling. And I already miss seeing people walking around downtown Honolulu with surfboards and plasic rafts to float on.

Now, I am looking forward to my graduation and my move to Brian's place.

He's graciously giving up a lot of closet and drawer space for all of my clothes.

Aloha update..

Yesterday, I couldn't access the internet, so I will keep it brief (which still means you will have to read lots). First we went to look at houses yesterday only to end up very disappointed. Housing is VERY expensive here. And..there are a lot of bad neighborhoods. So to console ourselves, we went back to Makaha beach (were there on Sun). We basked in the sun and water for a few hours and somehow I had enough sunscreen to not get burned for 3 hours of peak sun time. There may have been 5 other families/couples on the beach about 1/2 mile long. We also saw the sea turtle swim by twice. It was cool, I didn't get in the water with it though, 'cause I didn't want to scare it away. It is huge- about 4 feet across (I think). Then we went to find some local grinds (food). We stopped at Ono's Restaurant (Ono means delicious in Hawaiian). We had some great authentic local food. I tried the poi (mashed taro root), it was horrible. It was like eating paste with no flavor, maybe a bit bitter. But I also had kalua pig (roasted pork in banana leaves) and some sort of coconut jello thing. Brian had the poke (raw tuna with greens, soy, hot sauce, salt, onion and tomato) again. The restaurant was this hole in the wall that was awesome. They had pictures of all sorts of famous people there, signed......Chuck Norris, Caruetz (Bears player), some people from Karate Kid, etc. We then came back to the hotel to change. Later we went out for some drinks, one at a place above Waikiki, to do some people watching and then later we went to Cha Cha Cha's again. You just can't beat the place. We got the biggest plate of nacho's ever, had more margaritas and enjoyed the night air (I love that it's next door to our hotel and open to midnight). I had also picked up some Aloha wear so I will look like a real tourist tomorrow.



Today....So, yesterday, even though it was fun was really disappointing because we realized that so far we don't have jobs and rent will be over $2000 a month. So today....we started out by going out for some real Korean breakfast. We found a place that had it (we do this regularly in Ann Arbor) and ordered the Bi Bim Bap (rice, steak, spinach, kim chee (spicy cabbage) cucumber, and an egg on top). The owner was real suprised to see these white people ordering it. And then he was even more excited when we ordered extra hot sauce for it. It was great! Then we walked along Waikiki beach, it was packed by 9am. Lots of surfers and people watching. We saved this girl who had an over 2 inch cockroach about to crawl on her towel. We then sat at a cafe on the beach and read the paper. On our way back to the hotel, I picked up some more Aloha wear (dress) and Brian got slapped on the arm by some crazy asian lady who was mad at him for not buying a ring he was looking at. We won't be shopping there again! Then Brian and I got ready for interviews (really for him) at Waianae Community Health Clinic. It was AMAZING!



The people there were sooo nice. And the clinic is huge. Then have integrated medical, behavioral science and dental. They have a med school component, they have a pharmacy, they have a helipad. It had the most wonderful view I have ever seen. Basically, Brian will be looking out over miles of beach and mountains while lunching near the built in waterfall and fish pond. Then after work (or at lunch) he can work out in their all glass work out room with the same view. Right now, they only have room for him full time, but are open to trying to help me find work in the area and possibly work something out full time for me. So Brian will be working at a resort, right over one of the best beaches on the island (where they have a surfing competition each winter). So I am super jealous, but happy for him. Oh, but it doesn't start until late Aug/ Early sept.



Then we went to Honolulu for my interview. The owner was really nice, and I liked her office. She wants to try things out for me for a few months with a set pay. Its a nice offer, but she needs part time at first and I am worried about the commute, but it is something. Plus she has a friend in an office a few blocks from there that also needs someone part time. So that could help. I will be looking at another office tomorrow that is in a better location for the commute. Because what's the point of living in paradise if you spend over an hour commuting everyday?



The bottom line, is that we got some great news, we feel better about the situation. Brian is still waiting for some salary numbers which will be available in a couple weeks. But I can try out the commute and see how it treats me.



So tonight, we may go out for some fun food, and people watching. There are some great sidewalk entertainment out here. There's this guy in an outfit with lasers that dances to michael jackson every night, among others. Tomorrow, I meet someone at an office at 1oam and then tomorrow afternoon, we are going to head up to the northwest shore to enjoy our last few hours of paradise for now......



If this works out, you all are really going to want to visit us!!!!

North Shore adventure

What a fun day today! We hopped in the car this morning and drove to the North Shore (famous for surfing in the winter). We drove past the Dole Plantation and made it to the beach. Then we drove along the ocean. We stopped in Haleiwa for the famous Matsumoto's Shave Ice. Its like a snow cone but a bit more fun.



We had them with the works since we wanted to try all the things you could put on them. So we picked our flavors and then they put vanilla ice cream and azuki beans in the bottom of the shave ice. Azuki beans are sweetened red beans that are in a lot of asian desserts. It was really good, although I should have gotten the small.


Then we drove some more. The houses there are really cute. They are all decorated with surf boards and have beautiful flowers planted. We stopped at a beach where there were about 5 other people there and lounged outside for about an hour. There's no shade so we couldn't stay out for too long because of Brian's sunburn and my potential sun rash. Then we continued and stopped at a roadside stand to pick up some of local sweet corn. They have a Hawaiian variety and I want to compare it to DeKalb corn.

We stopped at a "shrimp truck" for lunch. They are all along the highways and serve the local dish of choice...the plate lunch. You get some sort of meat (shrimp obviously from the shrimp trucks) with a scoop of rice, a scoop of macaroni salad and some cole slaw for about $8-12. Its a lot of food, so we split one. You eat on picnic tables outside. It was fun.

Then we found another beach with an even better view and went for a swim. Not much though because the waves and current was strong. We then took the road around to the windward side of the island (north east) and cut through the mountains we saw yesterday.

Tonight we plan on cooking up our sweet corn, purple sweet potatoes and some steaks. We may go out for some drinks later.

The drive today was cool. You could really tell how they filmed "Lost" on that part of the island. No spottings of any polar bears, mysterious mist, or "the others".

I also touched base with Dr. Le, someone who I thought had filled the position at her practice in Honolulu. Turns out she hasn't and wants to meet me on Thurs. So that was great news. She is looking for someone to take over more of the general dentistry so she can focus on ortho and implants. That may be a good place for me.

Tomorrow we have another day off without interviews, we are checking out houses and hopefully doing something else fun. I still haven't gotten to try poi (mashed up taro- looks like purple mashed potatoes), so I hope we do that tomorrow.

It was a bust!

So, yesterday, some things did not go as planned...But I will start at the beginning. We are starting to acclimate to the time. We woke up and spent awhile messing with my computer. My internet is spotty at times. It took my computer 1 hour to load the pictures for the slide show, and that's not all my pictures.



We went to Kapolei to meet a realtor about a house. The neighborhood was really nice and the house wasn't bad, but it was pretty far away from Honolulu (where Brian and I had our big interview yesterday). The realtor was REALLY nice and spent awhile explaining commute times and neighborhoods. Basically, we found we need to redirect our search to some other locations that are closer to the city. We also found out the most important news of all time....Target will be opening a store in the area in 2009.



So then we drove around Pearl City (where Judy used to live) and weren't finding the right areas of town listed for housing rentals. We then had to get back to our hotel to get ready for our interview.



This interview was at KPHC, a health center in downtown Honolulu which has been talking of hiring both of us for awhile. They have a posting detailing how they need at least 1 full time person. The reason we planned our trip for this time was so we could interview before they filled this position and we have been in contact with their human resource director weekly.



When we got there......first of all the location is soooo small. They have squeezed about 8 operatories into a space the size of my bathroom (okay, that's a bit of exaggeration). That's not too big of a deal, but the problem was that we didn't really have an interview. KL (the guy that met with us) told us that they have room for one person part time. He didn't even talk to us about the location, or "sell it to us". Then we found out that he hired someone else in March and never told us (even when we asked specifically before we booked the trip if position(s) was still available). So we are VERY disappointed. Basically, he wants to split Brian with the clinic in Waianae. Of course, we had never heard of this master plan before.



After the meeting, we decided we needed to do some fun things in case we don't get jobs, so we've at least done some things on the island. So we went to walk around Chinatown. We found some lychee fruit..which I haven't had in about 5 years and was super excited about. They were perfectly ripe. Then we got on the main highway and traveled to the windward side of the island.



It was the most beautiful drive, through mountains and tropical forest (and 2 tunnels). We found out why they call it the windward side. It was sand pelting windy, but they had all sorts of people windsurfing, kayaking, and parasurfing (something I have only seen on the travel channel). The water was a beautiful shade of blue, we drove around the south east side of the island. It was like the Great Ocean Road in Australia. Just amazing! We came back to Waikiki.



It was funny because we are starting to get our bearings, Brian navigates by roads, I navigate by stores (straight at Tiffany's, left at the Kate Spade). We then finished out the night by having some great Japanese food at the cute restaurant with outdoor seating and had a margarita at Cha Cha Cha's, a mexican cantina next door to our hotel complete with outdoor seating and tiki torches.

Today, we will explore the North Shore and get a shave ice. We hope to visit Matsumoto's Shave ice (an institution on the island).

We have more interviews on Thurs and Friday. Wish us well. I will try to post this before something gets messed up again. I've already typed this twice!

The tooth surfers

First day in Oahu

Well, our adventure continued today. We woke up at 6am and got ready to go to the Farmer's Market in Kapolei (15 miles from Honolulou). We saw a rainbow on the way. We found all sorts of interesting foods. We have lots of veggies for stir fry in our kitchenette and then picked up some local sweet potatoes that are purple inside (super cool). Then we got a fruit that we've never heard of....a breadnut fruit. We're going to try that tomorrow.

We drove all along the Eastern coast up to Mahaka beach. We passed through a lot of poverty along the way. The beach was nice, not too hot and mostly cloudy. And....I saw a sea turtle pop its head up in the water only 4 feet from the water's edge.

We went to a local grocery store to pick up some basics and stopped for a late lunch in Honolulu at Uncle's Fish Markt on pier 38. We had a local dish called Poke (po-ki). Its raw tuna with soy sauce and cole slaw type greens in it with green onions, sesame, ginger, and a bit of spice. We also had some cooked ahi tuna belly with rice (and a corona of course).

We then came back to the hotel and we discovered that I did a VERY bad job on Brian's sunscreen. He has a few red blotches from places I missed. One on each arm and one on his left side.

We rested a bit and then walked to Waikiki beach for the sunset and to watch some hula. Then we wandered about a bit to expore. We made some stir fry for dinner in our room with our farmers market food.

Tonight, we are hoping for a better nights sleep since we found a nice noisy fan for $14 at Home Depot. We need it to block out all the noisy drunkards from "Tsunami's" and "Senor Frog's" down the street. Also, we seem to be in a prime location for men to rev the engines of their uber cars and motorcycles.

Tomorrow we are looking at a rental in Waipahu and have our most important job interview in the afternoon.

I have been trying to post pictures in my slide show, but the wireless network I am working on is slow and its not working as well as at home.

Wish us luck tomorrow!

20 hours of Traveling Later....

We made it and we are posting from Honolulu!!! Its 6am local time and we are feeling like its noon. Our Hawaiian Airlines flight last night was really nice. Then it took us 2 1/2 hours before we were checked into our hotel. That's 11pm local time and 5 am Michigan time!

Apparently, I'm even worse at navigating after being awake for 24 hours than normal. Our budget type hotel owns about 10 parking places. (Which is quite different than the story they gave us on the phone. ) Luckily, we have a rental car the size of a matchbox, so we got a spot that no one else can fit into. Today, we are going to try to find a construction cone to put in front of it. I think Brian is kidding about that...

Our hotel is in downtown Honolulu, in the Waikiki area. The party crowd from "Tsunami's" were having a great time last night and so we are going to try to find a fan for some white noise today. Our room has a nice size kitchenette with all the amenities and a good size fridge and freezer. I also was obviously able to connect to some random network here (I'll be changing all my passwords and not be buying anything online).

So it was a rough night, but we are excited to see the city (since it was dark last night and we were lost). I will post some pictures later and talk to you all soon!

Sar

Bon Voyage!

Well, Brian and I had a great time at the senior party last night. We got all dolled up, had a nice dinner, and did some dancing. I will be waking Brian up in a few minutes so that we can get to the airport.

I ended up packing 4 pairs of shoes....an all time low for me! We figured out that Brian has packed more clothes than me....also an all time first. But, my clothes are smaller and I don't have to wear pants and closed toe shoes to nice dinners and such.

We are on NWA to LA and then we take Hawaiian airlines to Honolulu. I was, of course, too excited to sleep which is why I'm up writing!

I'll post again soon!

DDS for real, not DDS2B anymore

Webb, DDS

Well, its official! Today was my last day of school and I somehow managed to finish everything. Its a surreal feeling to walk out of the doors and be officially free.

And tomorrow....Brian and I are leaving for Hawaii. I have two interviews, one in a community clinic, one in a private practice. Brian has 2 in 2 different community clinics. We will be checking out neighborhoods too. Its going to be a busy trip.

I am brining my laptop so I can continue to post so you all can see what I am up to. I also will try to post pictures. We don't have internet access in our hotel, so we will be finding an internet cafe somewhere or something.

So today is quite a day....I will be pondering over the feeling of being officially done for awhile.

Signing off......Dr. Webb

Little Red Hen

I'll start with the pros of today, before I move into the cons....

I did my last case completion! Yea! So, now I just need 1 endo canal.

Or so I thought....................

Ortho came out of left field to add to my latest distress. So I had an ortho patient assigned to me last year who is in a retainer. He missed an appt with me in Oct. Then the patient's mom and I played phone tag for months. Now, she called the ortho dept and they decided I need to see the kid pronto. The mom is not in the least upset or in a hurry to come in for the retainer check. The retainer broke about 6-8 wks ago. I have completed my ortho assignment and most of the ortho patients have been re-assigned to 3rd year students.

Here are the senarios.....

1. I see the kid on Friday (the day mom can bring him in) and I can remake a plastic retainer in house- problem solved (best case senario)

2. See kid on Friday, special retainer needs to be made to move his teeth back in alignment. I am forced to take an impression meaning I am starting a treatment on the last day of clinic. U of M will not post my degree if there is any unfinished treatment in my name in the computer. The school will not post my degree ontime. I have to wait until mid July for my license versus early June. And my dream job in Hawaii is unavailable now because they needed me in June. In addition, I pay $500 week tuition while I wait the 3 weeks processing time it takes for the lab to make the special retainer.

3. See kid on Friday, braces need to be re-applied. I spend $500 a week tuition until U of M feels they want to release me. My license will be available who knows when and I have no money and hope that none of my student loans start coming in.

If I convince them to post my degree on time, I cannot work on patients after April 18th because their malpractice insurance won't cover me anymore. At this time my instructor is refusing allowing a 3rd year student work in conjunction with me using their provider code (to keep my name out of the computer) to allow me to post my degree.

So here I am, 22 years later, reprising my famed role as the Little Red Hen. Trying to find someone who will help me out here. I will be working on this tomorrow morning. I'm sure you can imagine my utter frustration and dismay.

Fill out my poll for this dilemma....

Final Week

Its the final week of school! Still have lots to do!

Tomorrow, I have two people coming in for case completions. Then my root canal patient is on Weds at 2pm. This will hopefully be it for me.

Brian and I had a nice weekend. He got to watch his closet/drawer space start to disappear as I moved in about half of my clothes. But he is happily creating room for it all. How lucky am I girls? Hopefully, he won't change his mind when he sees all my shoes.

We can't reserve seats for our flights next weekend yet, so there's a chance that we may spend hours flying stuck in between two strangers. We started packing. I still need a new suit for interviews. On a completely different note, I found that Target now sells wedding dresses! I love Target, but there is no way I would pick up a wedding dress there! While I was pondering this thought, I looked up where target was on Oahu only to find.....That there is no Target on any of the Hawaiian Islands. This is some heartbreaking news for both myself and Target. I expect that their profits will suffer while Brian and I are in Hawaii.

I plan on posting to my blog while we are on vacation along with pictures. So everyone can see what we are up to.

Just a day in the life of a fourth year dental student

So I didn't sleep last night because I was thinking about my root canal patient today. You see, yesterday, my original patient didn't show. So my classmate gave me his (very nice). But I didn't get started until 3ish. So I didn't get out of the d school until 6:30. Then I had mental breakdown for awhile. So I spent the night fretting about finishing the root canal this morning.

This morning, I got to school over an hour before my patient was to arrive because I had to "bag" my instruments last night. That means that I turned them in after 5:15 which means I can't check out until I check in (which takes about 10 min). But I can't check in the old until 8:45. My patient comes at 9am. So I need to check in, check out, and set up in 15 min.

After all of that I get started. My patient is the most wonderful lady. I am working as quickly as I can. At 11:25, I take my master file xray (this means I'm done with shaping canals and now I just have to fill the canals, then fill the tooth). I take my xray with the canal filling cones. My instructor (who happens to be at least 3 years younger than I am) tells me I need to have the xray by 11:30 to do the final canal filling. I run to the xray developer and am waiting for the film. It is out by 11:33. He tells me, I'm sorry, its too late for you to fill the canals. So basically the main difference between finishing and not finishing is searing off the cones at the right length versus pulling them out with forceps and placing a temporary filling. So, the difference in time between finishing and temporizing is about 3 min. He is obviously too busy and important to wait those extra 3 min. I personally can vouch that I would have been done on time. Then later, he had the nerve to wink at me like I'm his friend.

So, my patient comes BACK at 2pm (meanwhile I have to cancel my hair appt). Now, I have to anesthetize her again, take out the temp, put the rubber dam back on. So in order to have her come in at 2pm, I have to reserve a chair. This takes me going to the appointment office, then waiting for the endo office to open and then going back to the appointment office. In the meantime, dispensing wants me to move all of my instruments to a different cubicle. I skip lunch and get up there ready to finish the canal, while thanking God for giving me such a great patient. Then at 1:50...............the power goes out in the entire building. You know, people stuck in elevators and all. However, it came back on at 2:20.

I finished the root canal and now my stats are up to...

1 root canal needed
1 case completion needed

And do you ever wonder why school makes me crazy?

Off the Ledge

Okay, I'm off the ledge today. Today was a long day, but I got so many things accomplished that I am feeling better. I completed three cases today. So here is my update...

CEU's- requirement filled
Case completions needed: 1
Endo canals needed: 4

Oh, and a crazy ortho patient to see. I took the required research study test today. That was great. I love being required to take tests so that some people can have research studies to do. Tomorrow's a big day. I have to turn in my lab instruments, have my exit interview and hopefully start endo.

Well, I'm off to yoga.

The dental school is hell on earth

Its official, I can't take that hell hole anymore! The dental school is making me crazy! Everyday I go in there, they come up with something else I have to do to get my degree. It will be a cold day in hell before I give them one more dime of my money. Today, I received one day's notice to take a 30 minute mandated survey which is really just a pathetic excuse for a research study that our dean is subjecting us to so it looks like she actually does research. Of course, we know that what she is doing is not research, its the exploitation of students. Then, now after 12 months of not being interested in her son's retainers I have a mom who NEEDS her kid in by the 15th. On top of that I still need to find and schedule and hope that he actually shows up. This means that I will probably end up paying for his root canal.

Then my PCC gave me this dirty look for asking her a question about appointments today. I got to spend 45 min trying to take an xray on a front tooth on the WORST gagger I have ever seen if my life. We took two films and got nothing usable. This morning, my second year student took over 3 hours to do a cleaning so I didn't have time to do an oral exam on my patient meaning that I have to bring her back AGAIN for a case completion.

How can the dental school turn this field which I like into something SO horrible?! It truely takes talent to do what they have done to all of us. They always wonder why no students want to donate money to the school. Well....let me tell you, someone can only take being treated like crap for so long. I will be suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome for years after I leave this place.

I hope the people who make my life miserable on a daily basis at the dental school enjoy the rest of their lives here while I am living in Hawaii.

Signing off, before I get in any more trouble.......

Finish Line in Sight

Yesterday, I completed my last competency! That changes my graduation stats have been updated to...

1.2 CEUs needed (yea!)
4 Case completion
4 endo canals

Picked up the mommer from Amtrak last night. We tried out Meditterano's last night, my prospective graduation dinner site. It was nice. I'm going to check out the acustics on a busy night to make sure that we would be able to hear each other. I also have this secret desire to go La Shish and get the flaming tower of swords.

Today, mom and I are going to see the crazys at Hash Bash and then go to a Raku glazing workshop. Its going to be fun!

Back to Life, Back to Reality

Back to Life, back to reality (you can sing it)

Yea! I'm back in Ann Harbor. As much fun as Oscoda was, "there's no place like home." I had the distinct pleasure of working on the finger licker again today. On the way out of town after work, I stopped at McD's and on the way out of the parking lot I was flicked off my two 16 year olds out for their first joy ride in their parents car. I was not sorry to leave them in my dust.

So, three hours later, I am back home. Fish are still alive. Here are my stats before I go back to school tomorrow.

CEU's needed: 8.2
Case completes needed: 5
Competencies needed: 1
Canals needed: 4

Projected completion date.....April 9th (except the endo)

Also, I read USA Today this morning and went to the section where they give a little paragraph regarding the top news in each state. Michigan has housing foreclosures, Illinois has a murdur investigation, Florida a has baby stealing story.......Hawaii has the biggest hula festival of the year.

Welcome to my blog

Welcome friends/family to my blog. I realized that with my upcoming travels and moving that I wanted a new way for everyone to see what I'm up to. So now, I am up north in Michigan doing some dentistry. It was an exciting day...starting with me getting caught in my patient's mall hair while working on her. Luckily, it wasn't my drill that got caught. Later, I got to do some early 20th century dentistry with the slow speed. I rounded out the day by treating the finger licker. Its a bit creapy when you realize the patient is licking your fingers. And finished up by having an abscess rupture and shoot pus at my forehead. Read this again next time you want to know why your dental work is so expensive.

The funniest part is...I still think I had a great day. So in the words of one of my mentors...."Its just another day in paradise, I just don't know how close I will be to the beach today."

And with this intro I will set up my blog. Thanks for reading....