September 2004 Archives

Some people need to update their blogs. That is all.

The highlight of last night was that I had stuffed peppers for dinner -- mmm. Granted, they came out of a Stouffer's box, but that's the way it goes sometimes. I enjoyed my yummy dinner while watching cheesy TV. The WB's new show "The Mountain" is very stupid, but the lead actor is very cute.

I then watched the end of the Astros game (they won!), already knowing the outcome of the Cubs game (they lost!), and then fell asleep after the Padres had tied the Giants at 3-3 hoping the Padres could pull out a win while I slept (they did!). All this means that the Astros are a 1/2 game ahead of the Cubs and Giants for the wild card. The Cubs and Giants both play today, while the Astros have the day off. I'll be crossing my fingers for losses by both teams, but even if they win, the Astros have put themselves into a position where they control their own destiny (cue music). They don't have to count on other teams losing as long as they keep winning.

I'm going to have a heart attack before this season is over, seriously.

And in the fantasy baseball world, everyone needs to root for the Clowns (wonderful me) to stay ahead of the Boulders (evil Glenn)...

Name     Avg HR  R   RBI SB  ERA K   S   W   WHIP Total
Clowns   8.0 7.0 7.5 8.0 4.0 8.0 7.0 6.0 4.5 8.0  68.0
Boulders 4.0 9.0 9.0 7.0 8.0 5.0 5.0 9.0 6.0 5.0  67.0

My computer sucks because IE freezes and eats my blog entries.

Matt is back at work today after two and a half weeks away for his wedding and honeymoon, and he is very tan from Belize. I was so excited to see him this morning -- there has been a terrible lack of absurdity in the office without him around.

SpaceShipOne flew again this morning on its first flight (of two) towards winning the $10 million X-Prize. I watched the live feed on NASA TV and freaked out momentarily when the ship started rolling on the way up, but it straightened itself out and landed safely having made it just past 100 km. I still love the fact that the entire ship gets towed down the runway by a normal pick-up truck.

I have been a complete flake lately and did it again last night, when I realized at 4:50, ten minutes before I was supposed to meet Buzz for a run, that I couldn't go running because I was going to the baseball game. It's a good thing I remembered, otherwise Jason and Debbie would have been sitting outside my apartment wondering where I was.

The game was great, with the Astros eeking out a 2-1 win over the Cardinals on the same night the Cubs lost to the Reds. Houston is only a half game out of the wild card lead with four games remaining. Clemens is pitching tonight, which bodes well for a sweep of the Cardinals, and then they end the season against the Rockies this weekend. These final few days are going to be nail-biters as I wait to see if the Astros can make it to the playoffs.

It's some consolation to me that the Braves are already in, so I have at least one team to root for.

Another Monday meant another dinner at Mely's last night.

Yesterday while my sims were running, I surfed the Peace Corps website, inspired by Jen's friend Rosa who has just started her 2-year stint in the Dominican Republic. It made me want to join so that I could travel to another country and learn another language and do something with people. I know you don't get a whole lot of choice over where you go, what you do, or when you leave...but if you get any say, I think I'd request the Caribbean or South America.

Anyway, this lead to multiple "so I hear you're joining the Peace Corps!" moments at dinner. This is how rumors get started, people. One moment you're surfing a website, and a few hours later you're unknowingly about to move to Kazakhstan.

Last night I finally got to see Cari's pictures from Peru. This one was taken the second night on the Inca Trail. It's blurry, and dim, but I love it. Remembering our campsite that night, and the spectacular view, and the impromptu disco we threw inside our tent just makes me happy.

I don't know if I would be happy in the long term if I could hike every day and gaze at the mountains every night. Part of the reason I love it so much is probably that the moments when I am there are so few and far between. But sometimes I think that's what would make me happiest. In most of the world, computers and sims don't matter. But to work with people, in a beautiful place... Sometimes I think that might be enough.

Living close enough to work that you can get up at 8:00, get dressed, pack a lunch, leave the apartment, return to the apartment to get the aforementioned lunch that you forgot, go to Starbucks, the post office, and the gas station and still get to work by 9:00 is nice.

I had a pretty good weekend, and enjoyed finally being home without much to do for the first time in about a month. I played soccer on Saturday and we won, which was a nice change of pace. I've gotten complimented at both of the past two games for improvements in my play, which is a little strange because I don't actually feel like I'm any better than I was a year ago. But on Saturday, our team manager turned to me after the game and said "Sarah, you were awesome today! I mean, you were good before, but this season you've been great!" So it was an unexpected and maybe undeserved compliment, but still nice. I hope I can keep it up.

Saturday night Becca, Cari, Jo, Jen, Melanie and I had a girls night. It was supposed to be girls night all along, but then boys worked their way in...but in the end, all the boys cancelled! We had Star Pizza for dinner and then went to the Mad Potter, a paint-your-own-pottery place. I made a large vase and painted a mountain scene on it. Melanie did a fish (painting it to look like Nemo), Jen did a picture frame and bowl, Jo did a teapot and tile, Becca did a set of coasters, and Cari did an airplane bank. I had so much fun; I love doing creative things. I don't get to be creative nearly often enough.

I even got to paint more than expected when I realized that the light blue I'd asked for (and painted on my vase) was actually gray. It happened to Becca and Jen as well. It was actually a bit frustrating, since we'd harassed the guy multiple times with "are you sure this is light blue?? It really looks gray..." and he'd reassured us that it was definitely light blue, and that the colors just looked different before they get fired. Sigh. It was not light blue, as I finally had to figure out on my own. (They had two bottles labeled as the same color number, but they were obviously different when I finally looked at the color names -- "Pool Party" is blue, while "Copenhagen" is not. I shouldn't have trusted the guy.) So I had to erase what I'd already painted with a sponge and do my sky all over, but I think it will be ok. I'll get it back next weekend.

Yesterday I slept in and then took it easy, cleaning the apartment, watching the Astros, and reading. I just finished The Sex Lives of Cannibals, a hilarious account of two years of life as a foreigner on Kiribati in the equatorial Pacific. Nancy was reading it in Peru, Becca bought it when we got back, and I just had to read it. I highly recommend it.

Around 5:00, I went for a run -- almost 8 miles, with the sole purpose of reassuring myself that the 10-miler I'm signed up for next weekend is doable. The whole marathon training thing is going to be tough! (Oh, if anyone out there is curious about my marathon training, I made a separate site that I'm going to use to document my training. You can read it if you like that sort of thing, or ignore it entirely. I don't care. It's only real purpose is to publish my training schedule in an attempt to keep myself motivated -- it'll be hard to skip a workout if I know people will read about it the next day.)

Do you ever have days where people get on your nerves? Not for any particular reason, but just their existance in general? I know it's not rational, but I am totally having one of those weeks where I just want to sit quietly in a corner by myself. I have zero patience for mentoring, and questions, and sims. I just want (almost) everyone to just leave me alone.

The past few weeks have been stressful as I try to wrap up a project by the end of next week, and I don't have the knowledge that I need to get it done by myself. The past few weeks have left me tired, achy, and cranky. The past few weeks have made me question the thought of going back to school to get a Ph.D. so that I can teach, because apparently I am really bad at it.

The past few weeks, in short, have sucked.

So it's nice that it's Friday.

Yesterday I mentioned that the water level in the bayou behind my apartment has been higher than normal, thanks to unusual winds out in the Gulf. Last night as I was watching TV, a blue line of scrolling text appeared across the bottom informing me that a tropical storm warning had just been issued for my county. "What the...?" I thought, as I tried to figure out which tropical storm was within striking distance. Because my coworkers and I check the NHC webpage with obsessive frequency around here, I knew there wasn't anything headed our way. For a moment, I was puzzled.

As the scrolling text continued, it finally named the storm -- Ivan. Tropical Storm Ivan, remnants of the original storm that have reorganized in the Gulf, is likely to hit us tonight.

Normally this would be a nuisance, bringing lots of rain, wind, and generally unpleasant weather. But I find it so incredibly funny that it's Ivan that it's hard to be too annoyed. I mean, I'm sorry, but it's sort of funny! It's the storm that won't die!

Received today. As spam goes, this just about takes the cake:

To: Saroy
From: Spammer

You're invited to shop for large selection of bombs and different kinds of rockets such as surface-to-air, surface-to-surface and weaponry available at reduced price. With the following types of rockets you will be able to commit terrorist attacks, destroy buildings, electric power stations, bridges, factories and anything else that comes your mind. Most items are in stock and available for next day freight delivery in the USA. Worldwide delivery is available at additional cost. Prices are negotiable.

Forgot to mention that I posted most of the pictures from our weekend in Kansas City. You can choose a slide show of my pictures and Jen, George, and Nick's pictures. I've found that in general, amateur pictures taken at weddings never turn out very well because it's always so dim. It's too bad, but in any case, four of my favorites are below:

Here I am having lots of fun in the Crayola store:

Here are Matt and Stephanie just after saying "I do":

Here I am swooning at the reception thinking about the soccer team at our hotel:

And here's everyone at the reception:

Cruelest headline ever, courtesy the Houston Chronicle today:
Fall means fabulous foliage ? but not here.

As if I don't already know that the only good thing about fall in Houston is a slight decrease in the oppressive heat, the newspaper has to rub it in. "Few things are sadder, leaf lovers may tell you, than fall in Houston, a city where, if you talk about the four seasons, people think you mean a hotel." Instead, the article describes how Houstonites can view the fall colors via Internet leaf cams. Seriously. BIG FREAKING SIGH. I have to get out of this city.

Also in the news this morning is the explanation for why the bayou behind my apartment has been unusually full lately -- weird winds. Slow news day, anyone?

I don't think I've given a fantasy baseball update in a while. My All-Star team clawed its way out of 9th place (out of 10), is now solidly in 8th, and is knocking on the door of 7th. It's a classic case of too little, too late. My NL-only team, however, after flip-flopping between 1st and 2nd for months, made a huge jump over the weekend and is in 1st place (first!) by 4.5 points with less than two weeks left in the season. This is especially exciting for three reasons:

1. If I finish anywhere in the top three (which is guaranteed since I'd have to lose 14.5 points to fall into 4th place), I get a cash prize. Cash is good.
2. Seven of the other 8 guys are rooting for me to win in order to take down Glenn, who has won the league something like 10 out of 15 years.
3. If I win an NL-only league, Carter and Dr. G. might actually consider me a "real" fantasy baseball person.

I was supposed to go see Hair last night with Becca and Jen, but I felt crappy so I just went home. I still feel pretty icky today, and my neck/back hurts for unknown reasons. Gavin was just diagnosed with strep throat, and since we spent all weekend together in Kansas City I'd be worried that I was getting strep...except for the fact that my throat doesn't hurt at all.

Is it Friday yet?

Katie is a nominee for Ms. Georgia Tech!

My sister is so cool!

I know I'm very late in posting today. No reason other than I don't have much to say. I have half an entry written about Matt and Stephanie's wedding, which was the more important part of the trip to Kansas City despite pro soccer player appearances that may indicate otherwise. I also have half a trip report written about Peru and the Inca Trail. Both will hopefully be finished...sometime.

Other than that, I'm just sleepy. I can't remember the last time I was up until 4:30 in the morning like we were on Saturday, and the late night is still taking its toll. God, I've gotten old.

"How Sarah Got A Major League Soccer Player Into Our Hotel Room"
By Becca

Step 1: Go to Nick and Jo's hotel room and swing the door wide open (their room was across the hall, rather than next to, his door).
Step 2: Primp for a wedding, giggling and talking really loudly by the mirror by the wide open door.
Step 3: Flirt with his Dad as he comes by.
Step 4: Yell through the door "Good luck on the game" as you leave for the wedding.
Step 5: Spend all wedding talking about cute soccer players during all breaks in dancing. Check game score using t-mobile phone.
Step 6: Rush back to the hotel, thinking the team would win the game and be partying.
Step 7: Be surprised when all is quiet at hotel. Put ear to soccer players' door and hear them talking quietly inside.
Step 8: When it becomes apparent that players aren't leaving the room, slide a note under the door congratulating them on win.
Step 9: Have Nick exchange a few words with players, feel very stupid when you find out they actually lost.
Step 10: Go to bed, giving up on soccer players. Put on pajamas.
Step 11: Be very surprised when soccer player calls you and ask where the party is. You offer to have a pajama party. No joke.
Step 12: Soccer player arrives in room.

The end.

I'd like to now add the optional...

Step 13: Spend Monday morning reliving the experience to everyone within earshot. Find picture of soccer player on cover of Sports Illustrated, yes, that Sports Illustrated. Still omit his name for fear of Google.

Step 14: Wonder how long you should wait before emailing him to see if he gave you a real address.

Back from Kansas City. I'll write up the full report tomorrow, but I'm still on such an adrenaline rush from the trip that I can't wait any longer to give the highlights:

1) Matt and Stephanie got married, Matt looked very handsome, Stephanie was absolutely beautiful, the ceremony was short but sweet, the reception was fun, the dancing was even more fun, and Matt and Stephanie looked so happy that we all almost cried (and one person did cry -- the one of us that you'd least expect).

2) The San Jose Earthquakes major league soccer team was staying on our floor at the hotel, not just on our floor, but in the rooms immediately surrounding us, and Jo lost all ability to speak, and I swooned a lot, and when one of the guys came out of the room next door to mine I recognized him from watching the 2002 World Cup as [name omitted for fear of Google searches], a.k.a. really freaking amazing world-caliber soccer player, and we joked with him as we were getting all dolled up for the wedding, and when we came back he was still awake, so we stuck a note under his door and a while later, just as we'd given up, he called my room, and so he came over and Jo, Becca, Nick, [incredibly hot pro soccer player] and I sat around talking about soccer, space and sex until 4 a.m. He was nice, articulate, very down-to-earth, and really fun to talk to. Oh, and he may not have been wearing a shirt.

So yeah, you could say it was a good vacation.

I'm off to Kansas City for the weekend for Matt and Stephanie's wedding. It should be a lot of fun, since basically my entire group is coming as well -- me, Becca, Jo, Nick, Gavin, Jen, George, and Rich. Eight in all. We leave this afternoon, go to the wedding tomorrow evening, and return to Houston on Sunday evening. We're staying at a fancy hotel in a big mall next to a park, and there will only be two people in each room. It's all so posh compared to my usual standards.

I went 3-for-4 in softball last night! I've been consciously trying to change my batting stance ever since Jason suggested once at the batting cages that I was leaning into the pitches too much, such that I was hunched over the plate and swinging out too far. It made sense, because for a long time I never seemed to get the barrel of the bat on the ball; it always went off the narrower part toward my hands (which didn't send the ball very far, in addition to painfully stinging my hands). Lately I've been making a conscious effort to stand more upright as I prepare to swing, and it seems to be helping.

A quick trip to the mall last night resulted in strike two. Still no dress for this weekend. I may try one more time tonight, as I just want an excuse to buy a new dress, even if I'll only get to wear it a grand total of once or twice. I really need more opportunities to wear dresses. They're fun.

Five years ago, I never would have said that.

After that it was another day, another "last" dinner with Chris before he leaves for a year at Stanford. Last night really was the last dinner (as opposed to Sunday night, and Monday night) because he's starting the drive west today. Tonight he and his mom are supposed to be somewhere around Abilene. Ah, west Texas. It's flat and empty and brown and scrubby, and I wouldn't want to live there...and yet it's somehow pretty in its own unique way.

After dinner I relived the entire Peru trip. Sigh. I need another vacation.

Is the weekend here yet?

I watched an ascent sim this morning from the ARD console. I was supposed to be here at 7:45, but I completely forgot until I was pulling into the parking lot at 8:30.

Last night Jen, Becca, Jo and I went to the Galleria and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Dinner was excellent, but the shopping was not. I didn't find a dress for the wedding this weekend. Oh well, back to the old standby.

Perhaps I'll move to Peru and raise alpacas. They're huggable.

A picture from Saturday night Legos:

And Jen finally finished her Longs Peak trip report and it's posted.

I just lost the entire post I'd written for this morning, which is a perfect indication of how this week is going so far. And it's only Tuesday.

In summary of what I lost though:

1) The lyrics above are from a song our bus driver played obsessively at 4:30 a.m. on the way to the beginning of the Inca Trail. I thought the song was like 20 minutes long; turns out it's only 3 and a half minutes, and the driver was just very fond of the repeat button.

2) I dreamed last night that I went to Atlanta just for one day, and didn't tell anyone I was there except my sister. I told her that I was visiting Tech for the day to talk about grad school, but really I had just come to Atlanta to drive the section of I-85 that was my favorite part of the trip from Charlotte back to school -- the last 20 or so miles into the city. I can't explain why, but I always loved that portion. I dreamed that I was driving it again, and enjoying the trees despite the urban sprawl. I miss trees. I don't think I'm a Texas kind of girl. I need more green plants and blue water, and less brown scrub.

3) I finally googled "Peru red black beads" to find out about the beads in a necklace that I bought there. After buying it, I began to notice that the beads -- half black and half red and oblong -- were everywhere. With my luck, I joked, they probably mean EVIL! or something. So I searched. And found two sites explaining that my lovely beads are actually seeds from a plant, and are highly poisonous and deadly if ingested. There is a lesson here, and it is: don't eat your jewelry.

4) Last night after explaining to Nacho and Chris at dinner that I love photography, I was forced to promise to take lots of pictures. The funny part is that the taking has never really been the problem.

Livin' la vida loca. I'm out of here.

Ok, this is cracking me up -- and I love the picture:
'Batman' protest at queen's palace

From the Chronicle today:

"Can you imagine the folks at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh running out of ketchup? How about all the ATM machines at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., being out of money? If that sounds impossible, then you weren't at Reliant Stadium on Sunday when the power went out."

Good to know that I wasn't the only one who noted the irony. I went to my first-ever NFL game yesterday (the Texans home opener) with Nacho, Nick, Sarah, and Peter. With about 5 minutes left in the 4th quarter, the scoreboard went out and all the ads blinked off. I actually wouldn't have noticed the power outage if not for the jumbotron and scoreboard (the roof is sort of translucent and lets a lot of light in), but they stopped the game anyway. After about 10 minutes, the refs announced that they'd decided there was enough light to continue (hello, refs, like, DUH) and the game went on. The Texans, sadly, lost.

I feel like a much more complete sports fan now. I've never loved football all that much, but it just seemed wrong that I had never attended a pro football game. We tailgated from about 10:00 till game time and had a great time. It's really a shame that people don't tailgate for other sports.

"So, how does one explain a power outage at a stadium bearing the name of the Houston-based energy giant?"

I don't know, but it was funny.

It was a busy weekend, and suddenly I find myself back at work. Friday night we all got to see Matt and Stephanie's new house; it's on stilts, only a few blocks from Galveston Bay, and has a hot tub. We did try out the hot tub, but it was just too warm outside to make it very comfortable. Their house is very cute though. It's the type of house I'd like...if I were in the state of mind to buy a house. Which I am not.

The soccer season has finally begun, so I had a game on Saturday morning. It was hot outside and I think I almost died from heat stroke. Seriously. It was HOT. Houston sucks. I had a heat-induced headache for the rest of the afternoon until Nacho was kind enough to provide me with some Excedrin before we went for a bike ride. We rode all over the place, 26 miles in all. Crazy. His bike is much nicer and much faster than mine, and he's also in better biking shape. I felt really bad for slowing him down the whole time. However, I did decide how to spend my Christmas-in-September bonus -- new pedals and shoes for my bike! I've been thinking about getting them for a while.

Saturday night I hogged all of Nick's space shuttle legos and put the whole thing together. I don't think anyone took me seriously when I said that I love Legos, but they probably believe me now. Nick also cooked dinner (gyros, mujudhra, Greek salad, potatoes) and it was delicious.

Yesterday was the football game followed by dinner with Chris, who is leaving for Stanford on Thursday and will be gone for a year. It will be sad that he's not in Houston, but at least I will still have someone to visit in California. I never did make it there while Jen was on campus (because I'm a big slacker) but hopefully I'll make it out to see Chris. Sometime after January when my annual leave count has been refreshed!

So that was my busy weekend. And in case anyone has forgotten, it was only a week ago that I was relaxing in Peru and dreading getting on a US-bound airplane. Sigh.

Despite all the good food we were fed (and thus ate) in Peru, I came home to find that I'd lost 4 pounds. Wow! If only weight loss were always that easy! You can eat as much as you want and still lose weight because you're expending so much energy. It's just not fair that one of my favorite forms of exercise -- hiking up and down for miles amidst beautiful mountains and rivers -- is virtually impossible anywhere within 200 miles of Houston.

In all seriousness though, I was really surprised to find that I'd lost weight, because I know I was eating a lot. So I tried to think about what I did differently, and came up with the following:

1. Lots of tea (mostly coca).
2. Very little coffee.
3. Lots of water.
4. Very little soda.
5. Lots of soup.
6. Very few prepackaged foods or snacks.

I actually didn't eat many fresh fruits or vegetables for fear of getting sick. And I don't think the types of meals I was eating were all that different from what I'd eat at home, except that everything there was prepared more freshly (or, less out-of-a-box) than it would be here. But what I was drinking was really different, so now I'm wondering what would happen here at home if I cut back on the coffee and soda, and drank more water and tea instead. (And yes, I already knew that tea and water are better for you, but it's harder to avoid coffee and soda at work than it is on vacation.)

It's really too bad that it's illegal to import coca tea to the U.S. That stuff was awesome.

Sarah: (looking at bank account, which has more money than expected)
Matt: "Hey."
Sarah: "Oh, hey. This new getting-paid-on-Friday thing (instead of Tuesday) is screwing me up."
Matt: "Yeah, but it's nice."
Sarah: "Yeah."

(pause)

Sarah: "Is it performance award time or something?"
Matt: "I don't know, why?"
Sarah: "Um, my paycheck this week was for more than it should be."

(pause)

Ray: (walks into office) "Performance awards for everyone!"
Sarah: "And that explains that."

Ray's timing was impeccable. Anyway, hooray for "performance" awards that everyone gets at the end of the fiscal year! What should I buy with my extra money?? :)

Yes, the week of Peru-related entries continues. I'm still going through withdrawal from vacation, and it's rough. Yesterday afternoon I was extremely productive, and yet the more I worked, the more depressed I got, because all I was doing was sitting in front of my computer. I'd much rather be productive when the term implies hiking miles through the mountains.

Until now, I've forgotten to mention the song we wrote while hiking the Inca Trail and Huayna Picchu. It was a joint effort, mainly by Cari, Karen and me, and is sung to the tune of "Leavin' on a Jet Plane." Without further ado:

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go
Pauld is standing outside my tent door
He says "let's go and walk, the sun is high"
The porters are taking down the tents
the cook's bringing breakfast that's fit for a prince
but already we're so full, we just could cry

Chorus:
So feed me and carry my stuff
'Cause the trail is really tough
Cuddle with me in my tent so I don't freeze
'Cause I'm leavin' on the Inca Trail
I really hope that I don't fail
Oh baby, my aching knees!

There's so many times we've climbed more stairs
Ups and downs always come in pairs
We're all tired but Pauld just climbs and smiles
He tells Reynaldi "oh, te llamo"
But the English-speakers hear "te amo!"
We all laugh and hike a few more miles

(Chorus)

Now we've trekked across Peru
Down below is Machu Picchu
And I'm so sad we have to say goodbye
Snow-capped peaks on every side
Inca ruins left behind
But we've got to catch that big jet plane and fly

(Chorus)

Good call by Karen -- I need to update my map too! It's still pretty bare, but at least part of South America is accounted for...

create your own visited country map

Karen discovered a feature of my photo gallery that I knew was there, but had never used -- the slide show. It's fantasic! It'll automatically go through all 461 of my Peru pictures in 10-20 minutes! I can relive the trip over and over again. Happy sigh.

Since I haven't captioned any of the pictures, and probably won't until I at least finish the trip report, here are a few of the better ones:

On our first day in Cusco after having flown directly from sea level to 11,000 feet, four of us decided "screw the altitude" and headed up a long, steep staircase into the hills above the city. Cari and Gavin stayed at the top of the staircase while Emily and I hiked up the road around a bend in search of the Cristo Blanco. He looks very holy, doesn't he? Funny part is that he was given to the city by a group of...Palestinians. Small world.

Here I am at the ruins of Sacsayhuaman. Yes, it is pronounced much like "sexy woman." Alas, we forgot to take a picture of all the sexy women in our group here. This was an Incan fortress above Cusco (which was the capital city) and the head/teeth of the puma that Cusco was supposed to represent. "Qosqo" is the Quechuan spelling of the city, and means "navel of the Earth."

Here we are rafting on the Urubamba River. At the moment, we are actually perched on a rock and posing while Jaime, our Chilean guide, takes the picture. Jaime was hilarious. The water was freaking cold.

The Inca Trail begins with little fanfare. Just a control point and a sign pointing to a bridge across the river, and ta-da, you're on your way.

Of course, as you start, you can look behind you and see this -- Wakay Willka. The name means teardrop of God, if I remember correctly. The sheer height of the mountain was stupefying. I kept turning to look back, and my eyes would come to rest where I thought the top of the mountain should be...only to find that the top was actually a few thousand feet higher still (over 18,000 feet above sea level). Amazing.

Here's a view of Cari at our campsite for the first night on the trail. We were at 12,600 feet, and it was freaking cold (despite Cari's lack of jackets). But the view was awesome. I thought the campsites couldn't get any better, but I was wrong.

On our second day of hiking, we passed the ruins of Sayacmarca. The weather that day alternated between being so misty that we couldn't see 100 feet ahead of us to clearing enough that we could see all the way to the valley below (which wasn't much fun when we knew we had to descend all the way down just to go back up). Sayacmarca was beyond the second pass, and looked very mysterious in the mist. These were some of the most impressive ruins we passed.

Here I am at Sayacmarca. The mist has cleared a bit, but we never really saw the sun that day. I didn't mind too much -- climbing three passes kept me plenty warm enough and it would have been hot if the sun had been out.

The view from our campsite the second night. I am in love with the Andes. They are simply stunning. After exclaiming that they were awesome, stupendous, gorgeous, beautiful, amazing, and even far out, we ran out of adjectives.

This is Pauld, our Inca Trail guide and my future husband. Here he's pretending to be a slave driver using my walking stick. In reality, all it took was a simple "let's go girls!" to get us moving -- and laughing. Pauld was awesome. I adore him. I'm moving back to Peru and marrying him as soon as I figure out how to say "I love you and want to spend the rest of my days having beautiful Peruvian/American babies with you while we trek through the Andes" in Spanish.

(For those keeping score at home, this means that in the last three years, the "loves of my life" have been 5 Swedes, one Slovakian, one first/second-generation American, and one Peruvian. Apparently, if you want to catch my eye, it helps to be cute, funny, sarcastic, outdoorsy, and foreign.)

Another amazing view of the Andes, as seen from our final campsite at Huinay Huana. Again, I have no more adjectives for how beautiful it was.

Here we all are together again at Intipunku, the Sun Gate. Karen, Becca, and Jen hiked up from Machu Picchu to meet us (they didn't hike the trail -- explanation later), and arrived about five minutes after we'd emerged from the Inca Trail to the sight of Machu Picchu below. One woman was shocked to see us. "Where did you come from?!?" she asked, alarmed. "Uh...the Inca Trail," we replied. It was funny. And I love Pauld. (Did I mention that already?)

We returned to Machu Picchu the day after we got off the trail and climbed Huayna Picchu, the mountain you see in the background of all the photos. The trail was quite steep. More stairs = tired legs. All the hiking finally caught up to me on this day, and I could really feel my quads burning on the way up.

Here I am on top. Yet more stunning views, which never ceased to amaze me.

The sun made its best appearance during our final hours in Machu Picchu and I was able to take this "classic" shot of the ruins.

We took the train back to Cusco, had dinner with Pauld for a final time (adore him!), said our goodbyes, and flew back to Lima the next day. I can't remember ever being sadder to realize that a vacation was over; I could hardly watch as Cusco faded outside the plane window. Gavin, Jen, Cari and I ended up with a full day in Lima thanks to our red-eye flight, so we caught a final sunset over the Pacific from the exotic locale of...a shopping mall. Asi es la vida.

Pictures from Peru are online. Enter at your own risk -- there are almost 500 of them, and they don't have descriptions yet. Trip report to follow within the next week or so!

I expected tall mountains; I got snow-capped peaks more than 20,000 feet high.

I expected decent food; I got so many delicious meals, so beautifully presented, and so much of it that I couldn't finish it all.

I expected friendly people; I got great tour guides, including one that I totally adore, to the point that I want to go be a guide on the Inca Trail.

I expected a tough trip; I got the most strenuous hike I've ever done on a trail that was "Peruvian flat," climbing up and down and up and down and crossing three breathtaking mountain passes.

I expected to like Peru; I got an experience that made me sadder to come home than I can ever remember being before.

There's much more to come, but for now, let me just say that my 10 days in Peru were absolutely incredible.

I?ve met the perfect guy for me. He lives in Peru. Hmm.