The best DAM thing!

I love my masters team! Last night we had a happy hour get-together at a suite in the Sheraton, which is just a short walk down Kaanapali Beach from the Westin. It was fun getting to meet some new people, because I only knew a few to start with. There must be at least 40 swimmers from DAM (Dallas Aquatic Masters) here. I think we have 6 or 7 relay teams, which each have 6 team members.

This morning we had an ocean swim practice at 8:30. This isn't my first time at the beach, but I had never swum in the ocean before and I was a little scared! But despite the nastiness of saltwater in my mouth, it was amazing! The water here is so clear and you can see so far down beneath you! All I saw were fish, but someone said they saw a stingray. We have another practice at 3:30 this afternoon so maybe I'll see something more this time. Just no sharks, please!


The whole DAM team

Maui Photos!

Ahh... Hawaii is everything I hoped it would be! Yesterday we landed at 3:00 local time and got to the Westin around 4:30. We were given leis when we walked in and then we received a complimentary upgrade to an ocean-view room, which isn't bad. The hotel lobby has waterfalls and live flamingos! It's amazing!

Westin Resort & Spa Lobby

Hello pink flamingos

Looking to the left from our balcony

Looking to the right from our balcony

Aloha!

Here we are, sitting at the gate at DFW waiting for our 12:10 departure for Maui! Sadly, they wouldn't upgrade us to first class. Boo hoo.

We just met a couple walking 2 adorable pugs in the airport. They had an apricot female and a fawn male. Such sweet puppies! We are going to miss Ruby and Dora, but they are having a girls' weekend with Aunt Bea and her friend Samantha. Thanks for taking such good care of them, Brittany - and for the cute "farewell" sign!

Phil's football weekend

I do feel bad that the "Philip and Courtney blog" has really been the Courtney and Brittany and Ruby and Dora blog lately! So here's a quick update on Phil, who is currently in St. Louis. He was there this weekend for a football alumni game. I was pretty worried because last year, his friend Gregg tore his ACL in that game. I did NOT want my husband coming home with an injury right before our trip to Hawaii!!! But it's ok, he's just a little sore and it sounds like he had a great time catching up with all his college buddies. Unfortunately, there are no pictures for this post, because guys just don't take as many pictures for their get-togethers as girls do!

Don't worry, though, I will be posting TONS of pictures of our trip to Maui! We leave on Thursday!! (Right after my last CPA exam on Wednesday - so yes, right now I am blogging when I really should be studying).

Congrats, Bea!

If you couldn't tell from her presence in the blog, Brittany has been living with us this summer. Back in March she was offered an internship at Watson Wyatt, whose offices just happen to be located 2 blocks away from Deloitte in downtown Dallas. Although she wasn't quite sure about things at the beginning of the summer, Brittany did an awesome job as an intern and was offered a full-time position with Watson Wyatt after graduation. Lucky for me, she accepted! Now Phil and I will both have sisters in Dallas! We are so excited!!

"I want to be an actuary!"

I took all of these pictures a couple of weeks ago when I got a chance to see Brittany's office at the end of the day. I just now figured out how to get the pictures off my new PDA. I must admit I'm a little jealous of Bea's way cool situation at the Trammell Crow building. I'm on the 15th floor at Deloitte in Chase Tower and I can't even see the light of day from my cube. But Brittany is on the 43rd floor and check out her amazing city views!!!!

Cheating the System

Ruby and Dora have gained some weight lately (haven't we all). So I had the brilliant idea of purchasing automatic pet feeders. They get a pre-portioned amount of food at 6:30 AM, 12:30 PM, and 6:30 PM. This way, if we are working late, they still get 3 square meals a day. But these darn pugs have been finding ways around their diet. Ruby is the worst because she has such a long tongue, she has figured out that she can stick her tongue up the chute and knock more kernels of Science Diet out! And then there's Dora, who prefers people food and helping us with the dishes (I promise, I don't let her do it very often! It's just so cute!)

Travel confirmed!

Well, it's really happening. Today I booked my flight and hotel for my 3-week trip to Hyderabad this fall! The picture below is the Taj Krishna hotel where I'll be staying. I leave October 13. I will fly from Dallas to Frankfurt, then Frankfurt to Hyderabad on Lufthansa. Then, on the way back home in early November, I will take a side trip from Frankfurt to Dusseldorf to visit my cousin Kristen. I am so excited!

Also today, I went with Brittany and some of her friends from the office for my first taste of Indian food at the Taj Mahal restaurant in Dallas. Brittany's friend Gagan, who is from New Delhi, recommended it. His only word of caution was that the food in Hyderabad might be a little bit spicier than what they serve in Dallas! Overall, I thought the food was pretty good - especially the nan, which was just like a thick tortilla. I also had a really yummy mango-yogurt kind of drink.

Fun at the Apple store

Brittany took her new camera along to the Apple store to document the event. She tried to take a picture of Steve (not Jobs, just the sales guy) - but he said he wasn't allowed to be in photos for legal reasons. At first we thought he was kidding but he insisted that it was a rule that Apple imposed at the time the iPhone was released. Weird. Anyway, she didn't get any pictures of Phil so here's a couple of me being a dork in the store.

The newest member of the family

This weekend we adopted the newest member of the family from the Apple Store on Knox Street in Dallas. She's a beaut! We have been needing a new computer for a long time, as both of our computers from college were 6+ years old. My old iBook had been acting up lately, and the last thing we needed was to lose all our digital photos, mp3s, and Quicken data!

Photos of our fun times at the Apple store are coming in the next post (courtesy of Bea).

This new iMac comes with a built-in webcam and an application called "Photo Booth." See below for all the photo booth fun we had!

Trip to Austin, 7/28/07

Last Sunday we drove to Austin. We left the house at 5:30 am so that we could go to Sunday School and church at Northwest Hills United Methodist Church where we used to be members. That evening, we went to a Mark Schultz concert at PromiseLand Church with two other couples from our Sunday School class, Judy & Gary and Dayna & Andy.

It turns out that Andy and Mark are second cousins, so we were able to meet Mark after the show! He is a very friendly, funny, and humble guy. It was strange to meet him in person because there have been many times when God has spoken to me in powerful ways through his music and I guess I forgot that he's just a regular, down-to-earth man. We had so much fun that night and I will never forget it.

Phil, me, Mark Schultz, Andy, Judy, and Gary after the show

Dayna, Mark, and Andy - "More bars in more places"

You can go to www.markschultzmusic.com to hear songs off his newest album.

H-O-S-E

Ruby and Dora love playing hose in the summer. It is a great activity to tire them out before they get a bath! It's very hard to catch action shots but I got two cute pictures of them staring intently at the hose.

Dora

Ruby