Yellow Fever Vaccine

January 31, 2008 By 1 Comment

So in preparation for our trip, I had checked to see if there were any recomended or requried vaccines. For American traveling to Brazil, none are generally required. If you come through other countries that are prone to outbreaks, the Brazilian government requires you to have a vaccine. However, about 4 weeks ago, I started seeing news reports of a yellow fever outbreak in Brazil. I studied the news, visited online chat boards and checked with the embassy.

You can see the outbreak area is only in Iguazu Falls, and I read mixed recomendations to get the vacccine if you are traveling there. For citizens of Australia and the UK, their government requries the vaccine for any travel to Brazil. H and I went back and forth about getting the vaccine and decided to be vaccineated to be on the safe side.

We decided that since we are likely to travel to Africa next year, where the vaccine would be required, to just go ahead with the shot and be protected. I haven’t seen much more news out of Brazil about the outbreak easing up or if it’s increasing. I know there was a rush on the vaccine down there in their cities & it even made getting the vaccine here in the US difficult.

H and I went down to the Methodist Hospital Wellness Center for Travelers in the Medical center last Thursday. It was the best appointment we’ve ever had. We showed up at 2:00 pm for our 2:15 appointment, and were walking out of there at 2:12! The nurse who gave us the vaccine was friendly and very helpful, and the shots for both of us were $224.
So far, none of the nasty side-effects we were warned about. Neither of us felt terrible, but we’ve had a few headaches lately. I attribute mine to studying too much, but it might be the vaccine.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: No turning yellow for us!
Filed Under: Married Life, Travels ->

More Marathon Mania

January 30, 2008 By Leave a Comment
I’m going to extend the marathon glory a wee-bit more. First, above is the snapshot from my never-without-it running buddy, the Garmin Forerunner. That’s what a 26 mile tour of Houston looks like!
It was pretty good throughout the race except for mile 11- something went wrong. The exact mileage was off, but I think it was less than a mile. I think it’s funny that I was so close to other runners the first few miles that it was picking up other people’s heart rate monitor signals.
This is a professional picture of me looking awful and for which I refuse to pay $30. You can see all my running gear in all of it’s glory. In case you are curious, I ate peanut M&M’s and Gardetto’s Garlic Rye chips to replenish the 3,100 calorie I burned.
This was soft of a fun group shot early in the race. I”m thinking it was about the 10K mark, while the half-marathon runners were still running with us. I’m in the left left hand corner.
GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: 1 week till we leave!
Filed Under: fitness

Vintropolis

January 29, 2008 By Leave a Comment
So this past weekend, after studying hard Friday night and Saturday morning, H and I headed out to enjoy some sunny, perfect weather after a long hard week with mostly gloomy rainy days. His friend told him out about a wine bar called Vintropolis, so we decided to check it out!
The shopping center where the bar is located has a great Mediterranean feel to it, with lots of fun & pretty architecture. There is a fair amount of outside seating, including the back courtyard with this wonderful fountain.

See my lovely dear husband! Guess what he’s hiding behind his back? I hopped right out of the car with my camera while he was on the phone. So when he came to join me he was bringing me my purse. ;)

The bar itself was really nice inside, with a great selection of wines. We requested a good Argentine wine to get us in the mood for our trip, and we directed to a great bottle of Malbec. We ordered this awesome cheese & cracker tray that comes with two gigantic blocks of yummy cheese.
We sat outside under the patio, watching the beautiful clouds roll by on a sunny day and had a fabulous time. We both just needed a relaxing afternoon, of course followed by dessert at Dessert Gallery.

This cheese knife set was great for more than just chopping the cheese block.

Anyways….back to studying!
GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Because Yapta Rocks, I was able to get a $350 refund on our tickets!
Filed Under: houston, Married Life, wine

Colorado Dawn & Dusk

January 28, 2008 By Leave a Comment

This was the last bit of sun I was able to capture (from my car) on my way downtown. I was surprised by the number of parks and really pretty areas in Downtown Denver. I’d be in heaven if I could watch the sunset behind the mountains every night.

Instead, on this traffic-jammed night, I mostly watched the buildings fade to black as I approached the capital building. There was lots of construction going on downtown and the sky provided a colorful backdrop after the sunset.

The next morning I was treated to this delightful moonset as the sun rose. I really would absolutely LOVE to live near the mountains and watch this every day.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I received my approval from the State Board to take my Engineering license Exam!!!!
Filed Under: Colorado, nature, Travels ->

Downtown Denver

January 27, 2008 By Leave a Comment
I hopped on an early afternoon flight on Tuesday in hopes of arriving in Denver with a little time to tour downtown and have some camera fun. My flight landed a little after 4 and I made my way downtown just before 5. I forgot to account for traffic and early winter sunsets.
I slowly approached this beautiful church for about 30 minutes as I sat in traffic and inched closer to the golden-domed capital. I again had the opportunity to drive (stopped at many red lights) and photograph with my rearview mirror blocking some shots. Not ideal, but I wasn’t ready to get out in the 15 degree weather either.
This church looked gorgeous and had some amazing details around it, but this was the best I could capture from my red-light vantage point in the early dusk.
I had wanted to stop and take some photos of the great capital building, but after sitting in traffic for an hour, I just didn’t care anymore. The sun had set, I would have to park and it was COLD. So the best I could do was this drive-by shot and hope to come back again some other time.
GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Our tickets to Detroit in April are booked. Motown here we come!
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Filed Under: Colorado, Travels ->
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