Chinese New Year in Hawaii

Chinese New Year is something my mom, grandma and I have been celebrating together off and on throughout the years. Unfortunately, grandma is no longer with us, but my dad was kind enough to tag along.

We covered the usual ground of feeding lions, buying food and participating in superstitious Asian customs such as fortune telling and jewelry investments.

This has been filmed in Hawaii, so expect slight differences in how we celebrate. Happy Chinese New Year!

Facebookers, link to the video here ;)

71. Learn to drive a stick shift vehicle.

I have these goals that I've been working on, 101 of them to be exact. I have 1001 days to complete them and though the numbers seem daunting, they're not so bad when taken in stride.

The latest quest has been to tackle goal number 71) Learn to drive a stick shift vehicle.

I've tried to accomplish this off and on throughout the years starting shortly after I got my license, driving around my high school parking lot in my Dad's big blue Aerostar. I once tried with my neighbor/best friend back in 2004, grinding the gears of his brand new vehicle in the middle of the night. An exboyfriend tried to teach me, though his patience was limited and I wound up crying at the steering wheel, and then my brother later took me around the neighborhood in vain attempts to get me driving stick. I live in an area that is basically one large hill, so not only did that lesson run short, but I never got behind of the wheel of a manual transmission car again.

That is, until I sent out a request on Facebook for someone to play the role of teacher for a girl who seemed stick-shift impaired. John H. answered the call, and within weeks, I was perched in the front seat of his truck.

Were we successful? You be the judge.

Facebook, link here.

Nixfunkle Goes Geocaching

Geocaching: A form of high tech treasure hunting that I haven't been privy to until Ryan dragged me out of my shell and forced a GPS in my hand.

For a simplified explanation, someone would go out, hide a container of varying size and mark its coordinates on the internet. From here, this location can be accessed by other geocachers who then go out, GPS in hand, and search for it. Believe me, this is not nearly as easy as it sounds; The hiding places that people can execute are mind-blowing.

Ryan and I spent an entire day, scavaging around parks, deserted lots and beach cliffs only to successfully uncover seven of our original 15 locations. When you find one it's awesome all over. When you don't... well, let's just say that the walk back to the car sucks a lot more. Regardless, found caches or not, it was a great time and a worthy adventure.

For more information on the history of Geocaching, or just if you're interested in participating, go to www.geocaching.com and sign up.

Facebook, link here.

Also, many thanks to Ryan for putting up with my slow walking and short attention spans. You're super (with a German accent).