Coffee in my dreams!

Ever heard of coffee dreams?
That's what I'm having now that I have this new job at Starbucks.
Calling coffee, making coffee, and serving coffee.
I love the job, but wish I could have one night where I go back to dreaming about Puerto Rico!

The Anzaldo's, Langevins, and Stearn at Survival beach.

Look on Joe's face when the wave came? Priceless!

Puerto Rico? Priceless!

Look on Lisa's face when we surprised her for her40th birthday? Priceless!
Spending a week on the beach with darling niece and nephew? Priceless!
Eating some great Puerto Rican food? Priceless!
Relaxing in the surf at Crash Boat beach? Priceless!
Seeing Jared surf? Priceless!
Seeing Jordan boogie board? Priceless!
Walking down Survival beach with Joe? Priceless!
Surfing? Priceless!
Brother-in-law Jim and sister-in-law Gina for organizing the family and making this happen? Priceless!
Great family vacation in Puerto Rico? Priceless!

Dr. Corso, what is that horrible rash on my face?

As some of you know, I had a mysterious rash appear on my face a week before I was leaving for a tropical vacation to Puerto Rico. Could it happen at a worse time? Could it be any uglier?
This called for an urgent visit to the doctor.
I was thinking that I didn't really care what it was, just that I didn't want it on my face anymore. Especially because it seemed to be creeping up towards my eyes! (It started on my lips and progressed to my mouth and neck!)
Any way, I didn't really care what it was until both doctors that I saw for it didn't know what it was or how I got it! Both thought they could get rid of it but they probably couldn't tell me how I got it.
Of course as soon as I heard this, I was crazy trying to come up with what I had come in contact with.
Could it be my sheets, my cat, dog, clothes, what????????????????????
"Who knows, but take this Prednisone and it will go away" says the doctor. Turns out Prednisone is the wonder drug cure all. It worked and the rash went away before my trip. Thankfully!

To a doctor this type of thing probably happens a lot. Not sure of the cause, but we can fix it type of thing. To a patient, this is not normal.
I wanted my rash all tied up in a little box with a bow. You know, "You touched Poison Oak and now you have a rash.". Or "You tried a new make-up and you are allergic." Problem solved. But no, I was left wondering what it was that I had come in contact with and wondering if it was going to happen again.

And then I talked to my friend Dr. John Corso. He is not one of the two doctors that I went to originally for my "condition" because he is not my doctor. I was tempted to run by his house and question him, but I imagine that happens a lot to doctors and it must get pretty tiring, frustrating and sometimes weird. But, I happen to be at his house for dinner tonight, I just couldn't help myself. I had to ask.
"Any ideas of plants or something that could have caused this?"
"Not really" he said, "could be anything, blah, blah, blah.". As an after thought, he said "somtimes people get reactions from mangos.".
What he was just throwing out there, I latched on to like glue.
It was the best idea I had heard since I got the rash because I had had mango's and that was pretty much out of the norm for me. Now I can rest!!!!!!!!

The truth is, who know's if it was mango's. John patiently explained chaos not cause and effect were pretty much in charge here and just because I might have had a reaction to something one time, doesn't mean it will happen again. I love that idea because it makes sense even if it isn't neat and tidy.
The best part though is that I don't have to give up mango's, and I can stop wondering, "What is this horrible rash on my face?" Because now I know, even if I really don't!

Do you Sudoku?

Ok, I have a new obsession. I'm talking about the number puzzle called Sudoku. It all started out innocent. I wanted something to challenge my brain because I have a theory about crossword puzzles. I know Sudoku isn't a crossword, but read on.
My grandma is 93 and still pretty sharp mentally. She has done crossword puzzles forever and it is my opinion that one reason she is still mentally pretty much there is because of her daily "brain" work. The logic following this would be for me to start crossword puzzles too. Well, to put it honestly, I just can't do them. I would definately have to start out with baby one's and I just don't like them that much. It's kind of like me and knitting. I would really like to be able to knit and say that I'm a knitter, but I just didn't like it so...............
Anyway, over Christmas we started doing Sudoku's. At first I didn't think that I "thought" that way. You know, in the math way! But then my mom walked me through some of the "easy" one's. Of course it was easy when you have someone saying "we can figure out the 9 in this row", but I did get a few of my own. My uncles wife told me about dailysudoku.com where she gets her daily sudoku so I went there and printed off some "easy" one's.
With some "easy" success's under my belt, I moved on to "medium".
I started taking them with me when I went to appointments or to pick up the kids so I would have something to do while I waited. I am doing them on the couch while the boys watch football. And in the morning I have added them to my routine after I read the paper with my cup of tea.
Unfortunately, I may have had a little to much early success and it may have gone to my head. I have now moved up to the "hard" level. I am just not sure if I was really ready for it. I got stuck on one over the weekend and turned it over to my mom when I saw her. I tried it a couple more times but finally gave up. We briefly wondered if it was flawed, but a quick check on the computer told us it was user error! My mom finally finished it after I left, but I have moved on. No use killing myself over one sudoku.
I have since printed off a few "medium" and a few "hard" level one's and had success at each. I keep reading about this new puzzle game and how addicting it is to others, so I guess I'm not that worried about this new obsession. I mean it could be worse right? I could be doing............? Too many to mention, plus I need to go finish the one I'm working on.

Tsunami Survivor from Redmond

This is a cool article about a young man from Redmond. His Dad and Joe used to work together.
He survived the Tsunami last year in Thailand and is going back.

Check it out. http://bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060101/NEWS01/601010368/1025&nav_category=

Double Happiness for Dim Sum? Not sure I would call our experience Double Happiness!

I have been wanting to try the Dim Sum at this restaurant for quite a while but they only have it on Sunday. I kept forgetting or wasn't home on Sunday's so I was so happy today when I remembered.
Of course Jared didn't want to go out, he would rather stay home than go out to eat. This is the exact opposite of Jordan. He was with friends so I called him up and was disappointed that he was all ready at Quizno's just finishing up lunch. Lucky for me he is still hungry. He is happy to be going out to lunch again, but pretty wary when I tell him we are going for Dim Sum.

First thing he does when we pull up is proclaim it "sketchy".
"Don't judge something by it's outside appearance." I say "This is going to be an adventure".
Next clue should have been the amount of people in the restaraunt. Including us, that would be four. Another family of five came in while we were eating but the whole restaraunt was pretty empty.
A very nice lady brought us menu's, but didn't bring the Dim Sum one. She clearly doesn't speak English, but luckily the Dim Sum menu that she brings back had pictures and corresponding letters for ease when ordering.
This, according to Jordan, is not appealing and another clue. No pictures of your food on the menu please!
The Dim Sum menu had the pictures of each plate on the front, and a hand written description of each plate on a piece of paper that was taped on the back.This too was a clue. Jordan was surprised that it was hand written. It has been so long since he has seen writing on paper, instead of computer generated, that he is wary of this also.
Now I am not trying to be mean here, but after the nice server lady left, Jordan said "Mole".I had no idea what he was talking about and he was shocked that I hadn't noticed the huge mole on her eyebrow. The thing about things like this are, they are so easy to remove these day's that I am always surprised to see them. It really was quite large, but not really a clue to the horrible meal we were about to have.
Regardless, I decide on the plates we will eat. We want plates "A, C, H and I". Not sure why, but something was wrong with plate "I" and she put us down for plate "B". (It must be so frustrating for someone to have to come to work everyday and not be able to speak the language of your customers. I have no idea what she was trying to tell us about plate "I" but whatever. Give us "B"and we will try it.)

There was pretty much nothing good about the ensuing plates that she brought us. The pot sticker plate made me gag. We could both stomach the steamed buns, but it's hard to go wrong with BBQ pork in dough.The mystery plate "B" was some sweet chewy bun with sesame seeds on it that might have been ok for dessert but pretty bad for our lunch.
We got a good laugh when the couple behind us inquired about MSG and if they used it. The non-english speaking server had no idea what she was asking about and their conversation made us crack up. Still not sure if they use MSG, but it doesn't really matter.
Dim Sum at Double Happiness made me double sick and we won't be going back. MSG or not.