I'M SUPPOSED TO BE AN ADULT?

March 27, 2012.

It marked a very important date in all of our lives.

Did you celebrate? Did you party?

I sure hope so because .... 

I TURNED 30!!! WAHOO!!

Fogo de Chao Key Lime Pie = <33

To celebrate this momentous occasion my family (including the in-laws, of course) trekked up to Philadelphia to get our carnivore on at Fogo de Chao. This restaurant is my new favorite place in the entire world because where else can you get all-you-can-eat meat on a skewer served table side? 

There is one very important rule when you eat here though:  

This is a meat jog, not a meat sprint.  

Take your time because there's more where that came from.  =)

During the meal, Teresa, Kyle and I all were relatively calm and stayed classy (hahaha, classy...) even though we were busy eating entire cows. Karen, however, clearly became possessed by the spirit of the cow...

The birthday celebration continued through Monday and straight into my actual birthday. Trying to outdo the delicious key lime pie I had, Don Pablos handed me a giant sombrero while they sang to me. Ole! I was also  given a free dessert which was basically fried dough covered in powdered sugar and liquid sugar. Sugar, anyone?

And just when you thought that my birthday couldn't possibly get any better.... we went out for margaritas (unfortunately, no pictures were taken of me guzzling the sweet, sweet tequila) and because 30 is the new 20 - err, 21! - I went a little wild. By the time the night ended I was five margaritas deep and hoping to make it to work the next day.

What did I do when I got home at 9:30pm slightly intoxicated?

...besides calling Teresa...

I took pictures of myself with my new iPad, of course!

Then I passed out.

Good times. Here's to being the big three-ohh!

50 FLIGHTS. 1,088 STEPS.

On Saturday, I completed the Fight For Air Climb with the American Lung Association. It was fifty flights of steps at the Logan Center in Philadelphia, PA. We climbed to support research for lung cancer, emphysema and COPD, asthma, etc. Some of my extended family has exercise-induced asthma and I have issues with breathing during high allergy season (especially if my aunt Agnes gets us lost in the pollinated woods, do NOT forget that inhaler). The climb was a great way to raise awareness, raise money and also get my exercise in for the day.  =)

Our team was sponsored by Barclays and included myself, uncles Shem and John and my aunt Marie.

I trained for the event at the YMCA for about 2 months. They have a stair climber that is like a miniature escalator so it was easy. When I first started, I could barely stand the stair climber for 5 minutes. That thing really is like torture! But since then I've come to love the torture and am up to climbing the Eiffel Tower (100 flights) in 30 minutes. I'm trying to interval train now to bring that time down.

For the Climb for Air our times were:

Marie: 13:22
Shem: 13:59
Christine: 15:36
John: 16:17

I don't know how well I'd have done if I didn't train; I'm still not in the best shape but keeping up with my triathlon running aunt is pretty good.

The view  from the top

After we huffed and puffed up the stairs we headed to this diner-restaurant called The Continental for breakfast and mimosas. Yum! It was the fanciest diner food I've ever had; can you say Brioche French Toast with Apple Compote?! YUM! Shem was so excited that he even did a pole dance on the way!

... and here is the delicious!

I know, I know. You're jealous. Maybe if you do the stair climb next year I'll take you out to breakfast too... and oh, uncle John? I owe you $20. Don't forget! It was definitely a great way to spend the morning even though I was up early on a Saturday. Maybe next year we'll be "century climbers" and do 100 flights of steps. Hahahahahaha!!!

yeah. right.

PLAYING PHOTO EDITOR

Woo! My computer is on its last leg and I'm hoping I can get through a blog post without it 1) shutting itself off, 2) shutting the internet down and 3) being as slow as a snail stuck in its own goop. I really need to step up and order a new one... it's driving me nuts!

Onto the fun...

Two weeks ago I took a photography course through Nikon. Although it was a long day - 8 hours! - and there were so many technical terms thrown at me I did learn a few things; like how to edit photos in JPEG or RAW format. RAW files rule for editing and now I'm all mad that I didn't shoot our Hawaii trip like that because of manipulations I could have done.

I've been playing with a program Nikon advertised (yay free trials, boo to have to buy it after 60 days) and have worked on a few Hawaii pictures... and here we go!

Byodo Temple, Oahu

Kyle and I have always liked Asian architecture so Byodo was a cool place to see in the middle of Oahu. There is also a Buddhist temple somewhere on the island that I plan on finding in June.

Kyle actually hates what I did to this picture but I told him he just doesn't have a "creative eye" to understand the beauty of enhancing the colors. Before the picture had grey, brackish water and I pepped it up! Okay, so the fish look fluorescent but still... I like it.

Carrying along the Asian theme we have Chinaman's Hat! I enhanced the shadows and brightened the green foliage to show what it truly looked like. Then I found a coconut (you put the lime in the...).

The last picture I messed around with was one taken at Kalama Beach.

Oh, how I missed this beach.

Manoa Falls

Kyle also hates what I did to this picture. WHATEVAAA!!!

And while I'm still here... I ordered my new computer between starting this and now. It legit took me five hours to complete this posting because of my Dell's new snail-like tendencies. Let's just hope it ships ASAP.

Ughh. See you on the new computer! TOSHIBAAA!