Age is only a number...

Well, folks, it is approaching. The 9th anniversary of my 21st birthday will soon be here. Sure, some choose to call it a 30th birthday, but I’d rather not. Been doing some thinking lately about the new age I will reach come 3/25/08 and I’d have to say I have mixed feelings about it. I work in health care, of course, so when you talk about age with people at work it’s “oh 60 is the new 40” and “40 is the new 20”, etc etc etc…Whatever. They’re just saying that to make me feel better. Do I really want to be out of my 20s already? What happened to college? I graduated 8 YEARS AGO from UC Davis. 8 years! I cannot believe that. Landon and I will have been together 9 years, and married for 4 of those 9, come next month. That also is pretty crazy to think about. Everyone has been asking me what I plan to do to celebrate the 9th anniversary of my 21st birthday. I thought about traveling, going to Europe or to the Caribbean…but we are making 2 trips to Hawaii this year plus a big trip to Seattle for a wedding, so the funds are limited. Not sure at this point what I’m exactly going to do, but I definitely don’t want any big party. Just something small. In a way, I guess, I’d rather just skip straight to 31. Bypass it entirely. Oh well, if any of you have any suggestions, feel free to send them my way.

The way I see it, I’ll just keep racing until the body can no longer do so. And that could be an awfully long time from now….hooray!

Happy Friday
-miko

Happy 60th to my mom...

So we're back from Fremont. Fresh off a 4-day jaunt to the Bay Area to reveal a HUGE surprise to my mother: a big 60th birthday bash! She had no idea. It was a magical night. Nearly 100 of her closest family and friends gathered with us last Saturday to surprise her with a night of food, fun, and fond memories. My sister Emi flew in from LA and we flew in from the OC, which we also kept secret, so when we showed up at a birthday dinner for her the night before the party, she was floored. Let me tell you though, it was quite the planning process to put this whole party together with my sisters and my dad. Then on top of that, we had to keep it a secret from my mom, who is the kind of person that you have a hard time keeping secrets from. =0) I have pix and will upload them later. We put together a slideshow for the evening and she loved it. Here's one pic from the collection: it's her passport photo from her college years. What a beautiful woman!

Here's another pic of my cousins Ian and Teri, at Mom's party. The one on the far left is my younger sis Emi.

Aloha

-miko

My hubby....

So, guys, guess who is the worst offender when it comes to overloading the washing machine? You get 3 guesses and the first 2 don't count.....HA!

Washing Clothes

I have been inspired by the practical advice offered by a friend on his blog...thank you Simon. Here is some great information I found online about how to properly load your washing machine. Unless you are living in apartments or dorms, or are short on quarters for the machine, I suggest you read the following. Your clothes will thank you.

Happy New Year!
-Landon
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Washer - are you overloading? (Courtesy of MG Appliance Repair Services)

Overloading is common. When properly loaded the clothes should appear to tumble freely during the wash cycle. If clothes simply sit on top of the water then you are overloading.

Test for overloading:

1. Open lid and watch clothes during wash cycle.
2. Pick out a brightly coloured item as your test clothing. It should move from the outside of the wash tub towards the inside within about 15 seconds.
3. Will be grabbed by agitator in center of wash tub.
4. As the agitator pulls it down into the water it should disappear from view.
5. Should reappear again in about 30 seconds.
6. If the test item is not consistently seen to be rotating from outside to inside, and from top to bottom, then you are overloading. If sequence described above is taking too long, you are overloading.
7. Stop machine.
8. Remove few items of clothing from machine.
9. Restart machine and retest.

Using this method you will quickly learn the optimum size of load for your particular washing machine.

Never overload the washer even for the sake of speed or convenience. Overloading can cause serious (and expensive) long term damage to your washing machine.
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