Aloha Basket

Ryan and I received and Aloha Basket from his sister, Amanda and Brett. It came with all kinds of handmade goodies from Hawaii. I LOVE the macadamia brittle. The brittle is soft and tastes like homemade carmel. SO GOOD!!! Luckily for me, Ryan doesn't like nuts or I would have hid the nut brittle from him. I don't share well obviously. Thanks Amanda and Brett!!

Olympic ticket sale in Beijing starts stampede

Remember me telling you that the people of China have ZERO concept of "lines". Here is an article by Associated Press:

Thousands of eager fans who had waited for up to two days swarmed sales windows Friday for the final batch of tickets to next month's Olympic Games, knocking people to the ground and bending metal barricades in the chaotic crush.
Witnesses said scuffles broke out at one ticket site as officials opened additional sales windows at the last minute, causing some fans to stampede ahead of others in a bid to buy some of the 250,000 tickets that went on sale in different parts of the host city.
"It was so unfair," said Ji Liqiang, who waited for 28 hours with Wang Zhenqiang, a fellow businessman from eastern Shandong province, for a chance to buy tickets to the diving competition.

"Those who came late but were able to push forward got the tickets," he said.
The two lost their place in line in the scramble and ended up with tickets to the synchronized swimming instead of diving - where China is a gold-medal favorite.
"It was very dangerous. I was afraid," Wang said. "People got hurt around me. They fell and injured their knees and elbows. A barricade was bent out of shape by the crowd."
Zhang Xiaojing, 17, who came from Hebei province with her cousin and three friends, said the line was fairly orderly when she arrived Thursday afternoon. But during Friday's rush, only three of her friends were able to elbow their way close enough to be in a position to buy tickets.
"If I'm going to be disappointed, I'm going to be disappointed. But I'm so tired. I didn't sleep last night," she said.
The official Xinhua News Agency said 30,000 people lined up for tickets, but muggy weather with temperatures above 93 degrees Fahrenheit coupled with the long wait made people impatient. Police immediately took actions to maintain order, including limiting access to some areas, it said.
Some journalists were escorted away after going into the off-limit areas, Xinhua said. Hong Kong television showed several journalists pushing back and forth with police.
Footage from Hong Kong Cable TV showed a policeman putting his arm around the neck of a Hong Kong Cable TV reporter and pulling him to the ground. The reporter said he was assaulted after his crew refused to leave a media zone, Cable TV reported. They were seen surrounded by dozens of police.
A spokeswoman for Hong Kong Cable TV said it was "unacceptable" for Chinese authorities to treat the media that way.
"We hope the authorities will live up to their earlier promise to allow full freedom of the press during the Olympic Games," said Shum Siu-wah.
Despite the problems, an Olympic official said the start of the sale went well.

The photos is of a Beijing police officer dragging a man by the hair after he was removed from a line while waiting to but tickets.

Excuse me.......have you seen my lost cat?

MASH

Remember MASH as a kid?? Where you and your girlfriends find out your fate in life. Are you going to live in a Mansion or a Shack. Apartment or a house. I LOVED this game. I use to make variations of this game. So in 2008, we can do it electronically and I shamefully stole this off of Mya'a Blog (who stole this from another friend's blog).

Here are my results (we had to choose 5 answers in each category):

• You will marry Ryan.
• After a wild honeymoon, you will settle down in LA in your fabulous Apartment.
• You will have 1 kid(s) together.
• The family will zoom around in a Purple Lexus.
• You will spend your days as a SAHM (stay at home mom), and live happily ever after.

How crazy is this? I will marry Ryan and have only 1 kid! Sweet!!!! The wild honeymoon is correct....I think bed bugs in China count as wild.

To play: Go to: http://www.espin.com/mash-game.php

Fish Pedicures???

Ready for the latest in spa pampering?

Prepare to dunk your tootsies in a tank of water and let tiny carp nibble away. John Ho, the owner said the hot water in which the fish thrive doesn't support much plant or aquatic life, so they learned to feed on whatever food sources were available - including dead, flaking skin. They leave live skin alone because, without teeth, they can't bite it off.

The fish are called Garra Rufa (in the carp family) but typically known as doctor fish. They were first used in Turkey and have become popular in some Asian countries, and I am sure you can guess what "Asian" countries they are talking about!

To read the full article go to: azcentral.com

I am a Denke now

I finally was able to change my name. I am so excited!!! It is extremely weird to now have a different last name. I have to now officially sign another name. I never practiced it before, it will take a few years to prefect is and get it to the style that I want. I am just so glad to have it changed. It makes marriage more real to me now.

I have to start the process of changing everything over. I have done a lot so far, but this is going to take a few years for everything to get officially changed over. It is hard work!

Amanda and Brett's Invitation

Here is my latest invitation design. They are for my new sister-in-law's wedding in November on the beaches of Oahu, Hawaii. Ryan and I are very excited to attend.
The invitation has three cards that fold up. The ink was thermography (raised ink). We used metallic paper for the colored card stock. Brett's Mom did the calligraphy. They turned our very nice and it is also a new style for me!
Congratulations Amanda and Brett!

I read a book!

Ok, please close your mouth....I know it is shocking and all. So I read The Raw Shark Text by Steven Hall. I did enjoy it. It is about this guy who wakes up and has no idea who he is or where he is. Has has zero memory of his past. He starts getting letters and packages from the "first Eric Sanderson"...the person who he was before his lost all of his memories. So the second Eric has to search all these clues to who he is/was and what happened to him to loose all of his memories. The book does turn Sci Fi. It has a whole other world that he has to explore, including conceptual sharks.

I really liked the book. I never thought that I would like a sci fi novel, but it turned out great! I thought I understood it until I went to the website and started to read the blogs there. WOW did I miss tons. Most of the character's names are similar to a Greek mythology character and similar to a modern day scientist. On top of all that....they all seam to fit and make since. Overall, you really don't need to get that....the book was great on its own!

So I liked reading so much....I started a new book. I am currently reading Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen. It is about a circus set in the Depression Era. It has love, murder, and comedy all rolled into a great book so far! I have 100 pages left to go.

Plans for the blog!

One of these days, I am going to customize the blog….but until then, please bare with me!

I am very excited about my blog and I have HUGE plans for it. Please check back often to read what is happening in my world. I just have so many ideas and stories and everything else that I would like to share with you all.

Tokyo

I LOVED Tokyo! Night and day from China. The people of Japan have got to be the sweetest people on this planet. I LOVED it so much there. We had the best and the most freshest sushi. I was just in heaven. I tried sushi and sashimi that I would have never tried. The quality was just fantastic. We went to one restaurant where the sushi was on a conveyor belt. So neat! We stayed in a very young and hip area, Roppongi. There was so many cool buildings and fantastic design everywhere. I forgot my travel book or we lost it or it got stolen….what ever the case may be, so Ryan and I just walked around the city until we found something cool to do.

Funny Signs in China

At least they tried, but these are some of the most funniest signs that was translated into English. Click on the photo to enlarge it.

The Great Wall

Ryan and I really enjoyed the Great Wall. This was by far our favorite part of the trip. We went to a section of the wall that not many tourists go to, Gebeikou, it was so nice to be away from every one. We were in this GOURGOUS part of china. Green for days and wild flowers bloomed. We had to hike up to the top of the mountain and the wall sat on the peaks of the mountain. Than you can hike the Great Wall. It wasn’t a very easy hike once you got on top of the Wall, it went virtually straight up in most places. There is a tower every so often. I think we hiked from tower 6 to 12. After hiking the Wall, we then zip lined off the mountain! SOOOOOOO much fun!

It was just so incredible. It truly was worth everything that I had gone through to see this and get to experience the Wall. All the trains, bathrooms, bed bugs, the smells, everything. It made it all worth it!

Beijing

We arrived at Beijing by and overnight train. This time we had a “hard sleeper”. It is just train cars of bunk beds three high. No doors. I didn't mind the “hard” sleepers, but I still had to deal with the toilet. I am telling you…..I cried coming out of it. I almost pee’d my pants walking to the toilet, but you get in there and NOTHING would happen. The floor is just covered in urine and feces….you are trying to “squat”. It just isn’t my thing. I am just WAY too high maintenance for train toilets. The train station in Beijing was super crowed again….they have no concept of lines….they just push you out of their way to get ahead of you. This old lady totally chucked me. I pushed her back. I am so sick of that crap. There is NO consideration at all for one another. It starts to wear at you after awhile. Again….I hit another low. I wanted to go home. It was really bad for me. But after a shower and breakfast (McDonalds of course) I was ready to hit the streets of Beijing.

We got to go on a walking tour of some neighborhoods. We ate lunch inside a home. The son (supports his entire family – Mom and Dad, Wife and Child, and in-laws) lost his job with the government, so now he cooks lunch out of his home for tourists. Just so they can get a feel of a Chinese home. The food was hit and miss, there was a few good dishes. By now, I am a MASTER with the chop sticks! The neighborhood shares kitchens and bathrooms. No plumbing inside the studio apartments. Yup, and entire family, 6 adults and one child shares a very small apartment. Then we went on a rickshaw ride around the neighborhood. It was raining pretty hard…so we were soaked. I liked the experience….Ryan, not so much.

We also went to the Forbidden City. One of China’s most recognizable areas. It was the Emperor’s mini city, inside the city. For almost five centuries, it served as the home of the Emperor and his household, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government. Built from 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 surviving buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms and covers 720,000 square meters. The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture, and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. The Forbidden City has the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.

From there is Tiananmen Square. The largest square in the world. Most of the photos I had to borrow of the net. It was raining pretty hard and the photos were too bad to see.

We also toured Summer Palace and went to a Kung Fu show. We also did a lot of shopping in the markets of fake goods. It is SO high pressure sales there. You had to talk them down….but it is just CHAOS there. You walk down the aisle and they all have their little sayings. “Lady, you want Prada bag”. “Sir, Buy shoes…you want shoes”. They all do this in the hundreds of shops there. They do anything to get your attention. It is really bad, especially when the grab your or chase you down. Since we like to be tortured...we went 3 times!

Olympics
The second we set foot in China….Miles away from Beijing, Olympic stuff is EVERY WHERE!! The government of China is trying so hard to impress the world with their Olympics…it is just got out of control. They have spent millions of dollars building buildings, remolding airports, subways, trains and roads. When we got to Beijing, it was just crazy with Olympic stuff. We came at a good time because there has been so much change to the city for the better. Taxis are clean and try to obey traffic rules. A lot of English stuff. There were no panhandlers. Trash was picked up and there was a huge presence of Police. Also the restaurants were better and more westernized. We got to see from a distance the Nest and the Aquatics Center. Both really cool buildings…..some of the neatest things.

Pictures:

1. Olympics logo.
2. Ryan and I in a rickshaw.
3. Cliff side view of the Forbidden City (borrowed image).
4. Ryan in front of the National Museum in Tiananmen Square. The Olympic count down clock in the background.
5. Tiananmen Square.
6. The Nest, an Olympic stadium. The was no beams used to make the stadium.
7. Aquatics Center (borrowed image).
8. Local on our rickshaw ride.
9. Forbidden City entrance.
10. Only Emperors was able to have 9 animals on the roof tops. Inside the Forbidden City.
11. Forbidden City (borrowed image).
12. Sumer Palace of the Emperor.
13. The office of the Emperor.