Some Beautiful Things

Today there was a thunder storm in Murray, where I work. It was absolutely breathtaking watching the clouds form and get darker and darker. The colors of the trees and the mountains were so saturated it almost seemed like the rain was gathering in the full green of the leaves than in the gray of the sky.

Also today, I finally decided to go ahead and buy a Regina Spektor cd instead of just listening to her songs from youtube. Definitely worth the 7$ I paid for Soviet Kitsch, which has nearly all of my favorite songs. I love her song "Somedays." It feels like a rainy day song, so perfect for today.

One Wiik

Ok, yeah, the title is really lame-- but love me, love my cheesiness. So it's been one week of working out with the Wii Fit as you can see in this picture- I get a nifty stamp for every day I use the system.



I've also been tracking my caloric intake using a website called thedailyplate.com. It's weird to see how the chart on that site actually correlates with the Wii chart that tracks my BMI and weight. As you can see in the following three charts, on the days when I eat over my recommended caloric intake, my weight/BMI goes up the next morning.






So far, so good. Probably the best thing about it is that it's making us more aware of how we eat and what we do. Apparently there is a connection between what you eat, what you do, and how you look. It is pretty fun to feel a little sore and know that I'm working. I already feel better about myself. Plus, a lot of the activities are just plain fun.

So, that's our Wii experience for now. If you want to read about James and see his chart, you can visit his blog.

Awww... Love!

James bought me these flowers the other day for no reason. :) Just because he's the sweetest heart ever. Cheesy grin!

Nafplio

The next adventure after Hydra was Mycenae and Nafplio. Mycenae is the city of Agamemnon (of Troy fame). Apparently, when Agamemnon returned from Troy, he went to take a bath in his castle bathroom and was promptly killed by his wife. That'll teach you to leave your wife for fifteen years.

After checking out all the fun stuff at Mycenae, we drove out to Nafplio, an adorable little seaside town. There we had a nice walk to a gelateria to have delicious Italian ice cream (I had caramel and hazlenut, James had dark chocolate). We stayed the night there and the next morning left for our big adventure on the island of Spetses... pictures to come!

More Greece Pictures

So, still trying to put pictures up from our trip to Greece. These pictures are from the day we went to a little island called Hydra (pronounced Ee-dra) to visit Mom and Dad's friends Gregory and Nool. They were such wonderful people and great hosts. After some shopping around the harbor, they took us for a donkey ride and we had a lovely lunch at a taverna. We also went to Gregory and Nool's beautiful house on the hill- gorgeous!


<--Gregory's shop, he's an artist and does amazingly beautiful work. (christeas.com)









P.S. James really didn't want to ride the donkeys but the Greek donkey tour lady pretty much forced him to, and James being the obliging man he is, went along with it. But he didn't want any pictures of it!

Wii Wanna Be Fit

So James and I have gained a bit of weight since we've been married. James blames me for cooking good food and I blame him for giving me a reason to. I also blame my job, because I don't do anything but sit at my desk all day (not exactly as physically demanding as being a custodian). Reasons aside, we're both a bit tubby and we don't like it. So we decided to do something about it--Nintendo style. We got our Wii Fit as soon as we got home from Greece and promptly began our Getting Fit Extravaganza. (Extravaganza = any lavish or opulent show, event, assemblage, etc. So you can bet we're gonna make this as opulent as possible.)

James's goal is to lose 20 pounds in 3 months, mine is to lose 10 in that same amount of time. Apart from weight loss, we both have a goal to work out every day--I want to do 30 minutes every day, at least. James wants to do 20 minutes a day, plus his cycling (he finally fixed his brakes!). So far so good, for the last three days (including today) I've met my goal.

We'll be keeping track of our progress, probably weekly to enhance the motivation factor.

Day 5: Sounio

Day Four was a Sunday, so we enjoyed an interesting and very multilingual church service at Mom and Dad’s branch. That afternoon AJ arrived, but we mostly just sat around and talked and enjoyed each other’s company. The next day, Day Five, Monday, Cyndi came and the day was mostly spent relaxing and letting Cyndi get some rest. That afternoon/evening Dad drove us out to Sounio to see the temple of Poseidon there and enjoy the sunset. It was absolutely gorgeous, and it was so fun to be with my sisters. Here are the pics:

More Greece

So I haven't been quite as diligent as I thought I would be about cataloging and sharing this wonderful vacation we're having. We've taken literally hundreds of pictures (yes, literally, not figuratively), and when we get home at night I'm so thrashed from the day's activities, the thought of blogging is a bit overwhelming. But today has actually been quite relaxing and I think I might actually be able to write a blog post or a couple of blog posts about this incredible adventure we're having. So, enjoy!

Day 3

So, last Saturday was quite the day for adventures. Dad's friend of the British embassy invited us (and others) on a trip through the Corinth canal on a British Navy destroyer (the HMS Manchester). The Corinth canal was apparently a project of a long-ago tyrant named Periander (doesn't quite sound tyrannic, does it? Only goes to show...), and was fruitlessly picked up by other more aptly named tyrants of later centuries, but was not finished until the late 1800s (for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinth_Canal). By that time, most boats were too large to fit in it and it wasn't quite the strategic shortcut it was always meant to be. Nonetheless, our brave British destroyer, on its way home to merry England, was just small enough to fit--and one of the few modern ships that can (tugboats and day-cruises aside). It was terribly exciting and the navy, er, people (officers? I don't really know) we met were very friendly and informative and just really nice, actually. They fed us a really delicious lunch of pasta and stewed meat and then a ridiculously amazing cake--too ridiculous to believe it could have been made on a navy ship (but it was!). It was chocolate and then they had actually cream, just straight cream, to pour all over it... anyway! We went through the canal, with the artificial cliff-sides so close we could almost touch them. Our guide told us we had about ten centimeters to spare between the ship and the bottom of the canal. We think he may have been exaggerating... but it was a really tight fit. After the trip through the canal, they let us "muck about" on the deck and even play in a helicopter (a "helo" named Sting according to its pilot). Then, once that adventure was over and they kicked us off with a friendly sort of kick, we went to the city of Corinth (the Roman one, anyway) and saw where Paul preached against the whore-mongers (apparently there was a temple of Aphrodite... I won't go into the details, but let's just say this temple wasn't exactly a holy place). We had a snack there--enjoying fried cheese (saganaki) and pita bread with spicy cheese dip (tirokafteri), then went up to old Corinth (the Greek one) and just took a few pictures, because it was closed. All, in all, a pretty amazing day!

Mom and Dad's House

Welcome to Mom and Dad's house! Please forgive the bizarre format of this post: I just wanted to get the pictures in somehow, and they all ended up pretty haphazard. I love that word. Anyway. Mom and Dad have a beautiful apartment on the third floor of a building. Their apartment takes up the whole third floor, by the way, so it's not like it's a huge building. Anyway, it is absolutely beautiful. Not only does it have the most amazing view, but I think the interior is charming and relaxing and absolutely conducive to the social life demanded of a U.S. attache. So, please enjoy this tour. I think it's pretty obvious what each room is, so I'll let you do the exploring on your own.

Greece - Day 2

The Acropolis

Day 2 of our Greek adventure began with a walking tour of the Acropolis (Actually, every city has an acropolis, because acropolis just means "top of the city" and, well, every city has one. But this is the most famous one and the one we all think of as the Acropolis). We didn't actually get to go to the Acropolis, because they are currently excavating and moving all or most of the artifacts to the new Acropolis museum, but we went to the theater of Dionysus, considered to be the oldest theater in the world. We also went to another nearby theater--the theater of Herod Atticus (not the infamous Herod we often hear about, but another Herod). After that we walked through Hadrian's gate, which he built to separate old, Greek Athens from new, Roman Athens. On the Roman side, we saw the temple of Olympian Zeus, and after that we took a walk through a picturesque little shopping area and ate lunch with Mom--gyros and souvlaki all around! :)


Mom and me at the theater of Dionysus.James and me at the theater of Dionysus.
Panoramic shot of the temple of Olympian Zeus.
Hadrian's gate.
James and me at lunch with Mom.

Greece: Day 1

Well, we made it! We're here in beautiful Athens, Greece getting ready to go to bed after Day One of our amazing vacation.
Day One actually ended up being an incredibly long, but interesting and fun, blend of two long days. We left SLC at 8am Wednesday morning and arrived in Athens at 8am the next morning, local time. So today has been spent trying to stay awake while taking in sights and sounds around Mom and Dad's house.
After arriving, getting a tour of the house, cleaning up and unpacking, we were off to the local market for some fresh produce and a delightful (no seriously, I was so delighted I was jumping up and down) display of colors and culture.

Well, I was going to put up a bunch more pictures, of us in the market and us eating souvlaki (yum!), and then pictures of the house to give you a virtual tour, and then night pictures from a sightseeing spot we went up to this evening, but the pictures are taking SO LONG to load and I am getting frustrated and I'm exhausted (we've been up for so so so many hours). I will probably be able to put up more pictures tomorrow and fill in a few more details. Greece is amazing, though and I am already having such a wonderful time. So thrilled to be here.