A New Adventure | Peaches Prattlings

{September 11, 2016} Leaving home…

It’s been a while since i didn’t really want to leave home.

And it’s been a while since i felt that way, it’s nice and sad all at the same time. I had a great week, actually it’s been eleven days that I was in Hawaii with PSM and its been terrific. And now that we have a home together and I don’t have a place anywhere else, this is home.

And now, when i leave, I’m not sure when I’ll get back, due to schedule and finances, but we’re doing everything we can to see each other and be together. Definitely more often than the last few months, that’s been a challenge, let’s just say.

Does this mean that every time I come home it’s like a mini vaca? Sounds good to me!

Now, I say aloha and mahalo and head on to the plane. See you soon PSM.

Aloha.

{September 9, 2016} Where’s Nemo? Dori? Let’s look

Today was one activity, crazy, I know!

We all got up way to early for vacation! Not telling, but some people don’t get up this early for work.

We had breakfast, hung out at the pool for a bit, then headed to the catamaran for our snorkle outing.

While we’re there and yesterday when we were zip lining I thought, duh! You forgot the go-pro! Then i realized…i live here, i can do this again!

Granted, unless LJ and JD are back with me, no pictures of them snorkling, but lesson learned, bring it with me everywhere!

We had a great time! It was about 45 minutes to the other side of the island, snorkle for about 45 minutes, we saw schools of fish, sea turtles, dolphins, eels, fabulous!

After snorkeling, there was lunch and drinks, loaded and unloaded. Then they raised the sails and we headed back to where we started.

More pool time, then showers and head to the airport. A great way to wrap up two great days!

{September 8, 2016} What a day! Maui, ziplining and a luau, oh my!

It really was a great day! Only thing missing.. PSM, he’s in St Loius for work.

LJ is in Hawaii this week with her family and we knew we wanted to get tougher, so I flew to Maui this morning on Hawaiian Airlines, it’s a quick 40 minute flight.

We met up at the Hyatt on the other side of the island, I met her bf, JD and her parents, all very lovely people.

Bathing suits on, first order of business… the pool. A lovely little wouldn’t you say? I am still floored at this phone’s camera!!!

After the pool and the infinity pool, back to the room to change and off to ziplining. Oh my, so much fun!! I had done some ziplining on a small scale, when i was doing a challenge with a group, but not like this, amazing! When are we going again?

We did the medium zip, a trek up the mountain in a van, get set up with our equipment, back in the van for the first stop then zip, hike, zip, hike eight times, then van, remove equipment, van back down.

After ziplining, off for margaritas, chips and guac, we worked up quite a thirst and hunger.

Then back to the hotel too shower and get ready for the big luau! It was awesome! Great entertainment, fire, dancing, singing, food! They even made me a vegan plate!

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After the luau, a nice walk along the beach and dime quality time chatting. Next order of business… passing out!

What’s tomorrow hold??

{September 5, 2016} Beautiful… ouch…ahhh

A beautiful day…an invigorating hike…then oops… then ahhh..

It’s been fabulous so far, I will tell you more very soon, but today we went on a nice hike towards a bird sanctuary.

We waited out the rain while we waited for A&B to met us. They are the daughter and son – in – law of good friends, JLWB and GB, who were transferred here about a month ago. They are both in the Army and live on one of the bases on the other side of the island.

We met up and headed to this park on the North Shore and started walking, it was hot and dry on this side, big difference from where we came from. The view is breathtaking, I dont really know anywhere it isn’t!…Beautiful

We started walking and.. you know me, I didn’t turn my ankle.. this time, I went down “on my personality”, as it were…butt [pun intended]… the phone was ok! Priorities!

I got some nice scrapes, looks more like a biking scrape, but something to talk about! And of course, this was in the first quarter mile, go figure! Moving on!…ouch!

We hiked about 2+ miles to the end, about 3/4 of the way hit the fence to go into the sea bird and monk seal sanctuary. Saw none, oh well… but the rainbow at the end… worth it!…ahhh

what do you think? New shoes for Annie, the beetle bug?

{September 4, 2016} Recall… fire… what?

Yup, Samsung is recalling my new phone! Not to worry, I’m getting another!

I was at a store getting an extra charging cable and the guy said, isn’t there a huge recall on that phone? Huh?

Apparently, the day before there was an article out that Samsung was recalling the Note 7 because there was a battery issue… phones were catching on fire!! I know cells phones can get hot but, wow!

There were 35 documented cases globally, thats proof enough for me! They also issued a statement that they would replace the phone or give a full refund.

A little while later, I got an email grimm tmobile saying the samr thing, so I sign up to have them let me know when a phone would be available and I’ll be good to go.

Sucks for Samsung, but good reflexes to get ahead of this!

{September 2, 2016} Mile High Club… how?

No! Dirty minds! I just want to know how!

Ok, so first, I’m writing to you from 30,000 feet, how cool is that?!

Second…I went into the lavatory and it was teeny.. so, I want to know… how do people join the Mile High Club in there? Unless you’re a teeny tiny person and the other person is teeny tiny. Ok, to be honest, this particular one was barely big enough for one.

No, I dont have plans to join, just curious. What else does one think about on a plane, well, a lot, but i thought this was a good one!

{September 1, 2016} A girls night…we got kinky… we needed that!

We went to see Kinky Boots… what were you thinking!?

I was out with LJ last week and saw the marque for one of the theaters here in Chicago, Kinky Boots! I don’t know if you remember how much GES and I loved it when we went to see it in NYC last year! I looked it up and it was only going to be here for a week… who wants to go!

LJ and DLP both said yes, tickets were purchased and here we are! Then coordination is next. LJ is no longer on the project with us and DLP had been in Springfield and got back today. We all synchronized our watches and off we went!

We met at Vapaianos for dinner, it’s across from my hotel, drop our bags there, eat, it was DLP’s first time there, yum! Then Uber to the theater, didn’t want to take a chance of being late! Up, up, up…in the balcony, almost in the last row, huff, puff, lots of stairs!

Curtsins up and…sigh! I miss the theater! I feel that every time I go. Sometimes I regret not pursing it, but then it is kind of what I do every time I’m in front of a class teaching.

The show was great! And I did my best not to quote everything! I’m sorry girls… it was hard not to! I love the movie!!

The cast was great, Lola was amazing and we had a great time! Walk back to the hotel, said goodnight. I opened the window for the first time, nostalgic for sleeping with the window open as a kid. I guess it’s a NYC evening all the way around.

“Ladies… and gentlemem… and those who have yet to make up their minds”

“We are no longer making a range of shoes for men… are are making shoes for a range of men”

Go see it!

{August 28, 2016} A nice memory was triggered

Tonight I played gin.

I know, you’re wondering how I played a drink, ha ha. No, silly, I played a card game, some of you might know it as gin -rummy.

Rummy is a, card game played with seven cards, gin -rumy or just gin, is played with ten. http://rummy.com/ginrummy.html. It’s a great game, it takes skill, planning and a lot of luck, you don’t know what hand you’re going to be dealt to begin with and you have to build off of that, then you don’t know what cards are coming next in the deck or what your opposition is going to play.

Last night I had the pleasure of playing again after a long time. My opponent was an 11 year old, PN. She was good, her mom DTN, taught her recently. She was the champ the games to my two wins.

The nice memory for me was being taught by my grandma M, my mom’s mom, and we would play for hours. There were weekends I stayed with her, we would play until 2am!

She was amazing, she knew cards played, what I had put down, She would look at me and say “are you sure you want to play that?” She amazed me!!

I’ve played over the years with different people and I’ve enjoyed it and last night it brought back good memories of my grandma. Sigh…

{August 22, 2016} Oh my…delicious!!

A really simple and fabulous meal in Chicago!

After work LJ and I needed some pampering, so mani for her and pedi for me. Let’s just say, I like blue, it’s not my favorite color, but apparently it was today! Fingers…aqua, ring..blue, sunglasses…aqua, sneakers…blue and now…toes, sounds good to me.

After our pampering…food! It was 8pm by now and lunch felt like yesterday! I know I’m exaggerating, just felt like it! So we headed to my hotel, dropped my bags off and went across the street to a place I’ve wanted to try, just haven’t hey, so we went, Viapano.

This was a great place! It’s nice and open, high ceilings, wooden just about everything, slightly rustic, but definitely modern, if that makes sense.

It’s a counter service, so, first, you get a card that you put on a tablet in the counter when you order, the chef puts in a code and you pay at the end from the card. There was pizza, pasta, soup, antipasto, insalata, lots of choices.

You order at the counter and wait, then you load your food on a silver tray to take it to your table. Everything was self service, like a fast food chain or actually, I felt like I was back in school!

This is definitely not fast food as everything is cooked fresh to order. One line for appetizers and salad, another line for pasta, and so on. In got a small salad and bruchetta from one line, then on to the pasta. The pasta is in individual bags behind the chefs, you select what you want and they cook it right there in front of you, it tasted like fresh made pasta, yum! They cooked mine al dente, nice.

While the pasta cooks, they have the giant wok like pans to cook whatever you ordered with the pasta and the chefs check what you want, how spicy you want it. It’s ready in about 7-8 minutes, however long it takes to cook the pasta.

I ordered spaghetti with aglio e olio, garlic and olive oil, which I love and added fresh spinach. I liked the he threw a little salt in with it, cuts the bitterness and I don’t have to add it, very rare! The garlic, oil and salt were the perfect combination.

The presentation is very appealing and the taste…molto delizioso!

http://us.vapiano.com/en/magazine/

{August 18, 2016} Fails and wins this week

This week was interesting.

No problems with my flight Monday morning, I would put that in the wins column. Tuesday night dinner…ended up with a bitter salad because the manager or waiter, not sure and I apologize for that, I said vegan, he mentioned what they usually do and I said I can’t, so I came up with a solution, apparently he didn’t like that and kept walking away when I started to ask a question, after the fourth time, I said just give me the salad. Fail. But…still had a nice time at dinner, it was the company.

Wednesday morning, I worked out, 40 minutes on the elliptical, win. I got back to the room, took a shower and when I was finished, guess what was missing…towels. huh? I had 4 hand towels, 3 wash cloths and a bath mat, seriously? Epic fail!

I called down and barely an apology, big fail. I talked to the concierge on my way out, she did something about it, win. I went to the place I like to get breakfast from, almost every day, and ordered the same thing, egg and avocado sandwich. I get to the office, eat a little, start to feel weird…cheese on the sandwich…epic fail. I called the restaurant and told the person who answered what happened and today, she bought my breakfast, win. I got back to the hotel last night, two sets of towels, win win!

I left for the airport at 245pm, got to the airport just as I get notification, delayed…really? Apparently the weather in the south had almost every flight in Chicago was grounded. Flight should have left at 455pm, then 6pm, then 625pm, I think we finally took off about 7 something. Fail. Flight out of Detroit, first class, win. Ten hours to get home…fail.

Now, I’m at home, in my jammies, snuggling with my furry babies. Big win.

Goodnight!

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